Identification of Differentially Expressed lncRNAs in Response to Blue Light and Expression Pattern Analysis of Hybrid Poplar .

Poplar is an important shelterbelt, timber stand, and city tree species that has been the focus of forestry research. The regulatory role of the long non-coding RNA molecule (lncRNA; length > 200 nt) has been a research hotspot in plants. In this study, seedlings of poplar were irradiated with LED blue and white light, and the Illumina HiSeq 2000 sequencing platform was used to identify lncRNAs. |logFC| > 1 and < 0.05 were considered to indicate differentially expressed lncRNAs, and nine differentially expressed lncRNAs were screened, the target genes of which were predicted, and three functionally annotated target genes were obtained. The differentially expressed lncRNAs were identified as miRNA targets. Six lncRNAs were determined to be target sites for twelve mRNAs in six miRNA families. LncRNAs and their target genes, including lncRNA , were verified using quantitative real-time polymerase chain reaction analysis, and the expression patterns were analyzed. The analysis showed that the expression was downregulated, while lncRNA and expression was upregulated, after blue light exposure. These results indicate that lncRNAs interact with miRNAs to regulate gene expression and affect plant growth and development.