The profiling of small RNAs by high throughput sequencing (smRNA-Seq) has revealed the complexity of the RNA world. Here, we describe a computational scheme for dissecting the plant smRNAome by integrating smRNA-Seq datasets in Arabidopsis thaliana. Our analytical approach first defines ab initio the genomic loci that produce smRNAs as basic units, then utilizes principal component analysis (PCA) to predict novel miRNAs. Secondary structure prediction of candidates’ putative precursors discovered a group of long hairpin double-stranded RNAs (lh-dsRNAs) formed by inverted duplications of decayed coding genes. These gene remnants produce miRNA-like small RNAs which are predominantly 21- and 22-nt long, dependent of DCL1 but independent of RDR2 and DCL2/3/4, and associated with AGO1. Additionally, we found two classes of transcription start site associated- (TSSa-) RNAs located at sense (+) and antisense (−) approximately 100 ~ 200 bp downstream of TSSs, but are differentially incorporated into AGO1 and AGO4, respectively.
Aging in Caenorhabditis elegans is controlled, in part, by the insulin-like signaling and heat shock response pathways. Following thermal stress, expression levels of small heat shock protein-16.2 show a spatial patterning across the 20 intestinal cells that reside along the length of the worm. Here, we present a hypothesized mechanism that could lead to this patterned response and develop a mathematical model of this system to test our hypothesis. We propose that the patterned expression of heat shock protein is caused by a diffusion-driven instability within the pseudocoelom, or fluid-filled cavity, that borders the intestinal cells in C. elegans. This instability is due to the interactions between two classes of insulin-like peptides that serve antagonistic roles. We examine output from the developed model and compare it to experimental data on heat shock protein expression. Given biologically bounded parameters, the model presented is capable of producing patterns similar to what is observed experimentally and provides a first step in mathematically modeling aging-related mechanisms in C. elegans.
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