ORIGINAL ARTICLE

Differential Expression of miRNAs under Boron Toxicity Affects Circadian Cycle and Vegetative Development in French Bean

French bean is (Phaseolus vulgaris) widely grown legume worldwide and is the most important pulse crop in the Indian subcontinent. The productivity is adversely affected by a large number of biotic and abiotic stresses. Micro RNAs (miRNAs) have been implicated in the regulation of plant responses to several biotic and abiotic stresses. Boron (B) toxicity is a significant limitation to cereal crop production worldwide. In this study, RT-qPCR confirmed seven miRNAs were responsive to boron toxicity. The known predicted targets and their functional analysis revealed that most of the targets represent transcription factors. GO results supported our hypothesis that miRNAs were found to be involved in diverse cellular processes, including plant circadian cycle, vegetative development, transcription, and cross adaptation. The results obtained would provide new insights to the complex regulatory mechanism employing small non-coding regulatory RNAs toward stress adaptation.