MicroRNAs in a multicellular green alga Volvox carteri.

microRNAs (miRNAs) have emerged as key components in the eukaryotic gene regulatory network. We and others have previously identified many miRNAs in a unicellular green alga, Chlamydomonas reinhardtii. To investigate whether miRNA-mediated gene regulation is a general mechanism in green algae and how miRNAs have been evolved in the green algal lineage, we examined small RNAs in Volvox carteri, a multicellular species in the same family with Chlamydomonas reinhardtii. We identified 174 miRNAs in Volvox, with many of them being highly enriched in gonidia or somatic cells. The targets of the miRNAs were predicted and many of them were subjected to miRNA-mediated cleavage in vivo, suggesting that miRNAs play regulatory roles in the biology of green algae. Our catalog of miRNAs and their targets provides a resource for further studies on the evolution, biological functions, and genomic properties of miRNAs in green algae.