MicroRNA profiling analysis throughout tomato fruit development and ripening reveals potential regulatory role of RIN on microRNAs accumulation

The development and ripening of tomato fruit are complex processes involving many gene regulatory pathways at the transcriptional and post-transcriptional level. Ripening inhibitor (RIN) is a vital transcription factor, which targets numerous ripening-related genes at the transcriptional level during tomato fruit ripening. MicroRNAs (miRNAs) are a class of short noncoding RNAs that play important roles in post-transcriptional gene regulation. To elucidate the potential regulatory relationship between rin and miRNAs during fruit development and ripening, we identified known miRNAs and profiled their expression in wild-type tomato and rin mutant using a deep sequencing approach combined with quantitative RT-PCR. A total of 33 known miRNA families were identified, of which 14 miRNA families were differently accumulated. Subsequent promoter analysis showed that possible RIN-binding motifs (CArG-box) tended to occur frequently in the promoter regions of partial differently expressed miRNAs. In addition, ethylene may participate in the regulation of miRNAs accumulation during tomato fruit ripening. Chromatin immunoprecipitation (ChIP) and electrophoretic mobility shift assay confirmed the direct binding of RIN to the promoter of MIR172a. Collectively, these results showed a close correlation between miRNA expression and RIN as well as ethylene, which further elucidated the regulatory roles of miRNAs during fruit development and ripening and enriched the regulatory network of RIN in tomato fruit.