Identification of Arundo donax L. microRNAs and their targets using high-throughput sequencing and degradome analysis

Arundo donax L., commonly called giant reed, is a perennial rhizomatous invasive grassbelonging to the Poaceae family. It is often cultivated as energy crop for second generationbiofuels production, and is able to cope with different biotic and abiotic stresses, colonizingdegraded and marginal areas. We carried out for the first time a high-throughput sequencingapproach to detect known and novel miRNAs of A. donax. The targets of miRNAs were alsoinvestigated by the parallel analysis of RNA ends (degradome analysis), shedding light onmiRNAs' putative functions, and especially aiming to clarify determinants of resilience of A.donax to biotic and abiotic stress.