{
  "id": 4691133,
  "title": "Eucalyptus microRNA Archive (EMA): a multi-study and cross-condition curated database of microRNAs in Eucalyptus grandis",
  "url": "https://urgent.news/2026/08/31/eucalyptus-microrna-archive-ema-a-multi-study-and-cross-condition",
  "topic": "science",
  "section": "Science",
  "published": "2026-08-31T00:00:00.000Z",
  "source": {
    "name": "bioRxiv",
    "slug": "biorxiv",
    "url": "https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.64898/2026.08.29.747619v1?rss=1"
  },
  "original_language": "en",
  "account": "MicroRNAs (miRNAs) serve as crucial regulators for development, stress response, and secondary cell wall formation in woody plants. However, annotations for Eucalyptus grandis, the most extensively cultivated hardwood globally, have been dispersed across studies utilizing incompatible discovery methods and filtering parameters. The Eucalyptus MicroRNA Archive (EMA) aims to address this issue by providing a curated, locus-resolved database that integrates three independent small RNA sequencing datasets. These datasets cover vegetative tissue, somatic embryogenesis, and mechanically induced tension wood formation.\n\nEMA incorporates annotation criteria in line with current plant miRNA standards, cataloging a total of 99 curated miRNAs (31 previously identified, 68 novel) within 34 family-level groupings. The database employs a three-tier confidence system, which preserves the study-of-origin and sample-level evidence for each entry. Comparing across studies revealed that only 9 out of 99 entries (9.1%) were independently supported by all three datasets, indicating that an evidence-tiered annotation system, rather than a binary approach, is more appropriate.\n\nA target prediction analysis against the E. grandis transcriptome identified 1,773 miRNA-target interactions across 764 loci. These interactions were integrated into a combined miRNA-target and protein-protein interaction network, which organized into functionally coherent, mutually isolated clusters. One notable cluster featured an miR482-associated NBS-LRR/TIR disease-resistance hub, characterized by a significant translational-repression component. Other clusters exhibited enrichment in ribosome biogenesis, translation, DNA replication, and nitrogen and carbohydrate metabolism.\n\nEMA is made available publicly through an interactive web dashboard, with all curated data, source code, and analysis scripts openly accessible. This resource offers a reproducible and extensible framework for E. grandis miRNA research, serving as a template for similar initiatives in other non-model woody species.",
  "summary": "MicroRNAs (miRNAs) are key post-transcriptional regulators of development, stress response, and secondary cell wall formation in woody plants, yet annotations for Eucalyptus grandis, the world's most widely planted hardwood, remain fragmented across studies using incompatible discovery pipelines and filtering criteria. Here we present the Eucalyptus MicroRNA Archive (EMA), a curated,…",
  "key_points": [],
  "editors_take": null,
  "illustration": null,
  "coverage": {
    "outlets": 1,
    "also_reported_by": []
  },
  "ai_generated": true,
  "disclaimer": "Summaries, key points and the editor’s take are written by software from other outlets’ reporting and may contain errors — always check the linked original."
}