Conserved Cu-MicroRNAs in Arabidopsis thaliana Function in Copper Economy under Deficiency

Conserved Cu-MicroRNAs in Arabidopsis thaliana Function in Copper Economy under Deficiency

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Copper (Cu) is a micronutrient for plants.Three small RNAs, which are up-regulated by Cu deficiency and target transcripts for Cu proteins, are among the most conserved microRNAs in plants.It was hypothesized that these Cu-microRNAs help save Cu for the most essential Cu-proteins under deficiency.Testing this hypothesis has been a challenge due to the redundancy of the Cu microRNAs and the properties of the regulatory circuits that control Cu homeostasis.In order to investigate the role of Cu-microRNAs in Cu homeostasis during vegetative growth, we used a tandem target mimicry iphone 14 price arizona strategy to simultaneously inhibit the function of three conserved Cu-microRNAs in Arabidopsis thaliana.

When compared to wild-type, transgenic lines that express the tandem target mimicry construct showed reduced Cu-microRNA accumulation and increased accumulation of transcripts that encode Cu proteins.As a result, these mimicry lines showed impaired photosynthesis and growth compared to wild type on low Cu, which could be ascribed grandpas best to a defect in accumulation of plastocyanin, a Cu-containing photosynthetic electron copyright, which is itself not a Cu-microRNA target.These data provide experimental support for a Cu economy model where the Cu-microRNAs together function to allow maturation of essential Cu proteins under impending deficiency.