Almond miRNA Expression and Horticultural Implications

From the past, till now various improved almond cultivars with desired traits have been introduced through breeding programs based on classical and biotechnological approaches. Despite the success of these methods, the development of almond cultivation has been encountered with a variety of constraints. In all plants, including almond, regulatory mechanisms at different levels of transcription, post-transcription, translation, and post-translation have evolved under different conditions, and an in-depth understanding of these mechanisms may suggest new strategies for the development of desirable cultivars. Since the discovery of the first plant microRNA (miRNA) over the last two decades, several miRNAomes studies including identification, expression profiling, miRNA-mRNA interactions, and miRNA functional analysis have provided novel intuitions on regulatory mechanisms. In almond, recent studies illustrated the microRNA-mediated gene regulation under abiotic stresses (cold stress and drought stress), symbiosis, and during fruit development. In this chapter, we have discussed the results of these studies and highlighted the candidate responsive miRNAs for further functional studies and appliance them for genetic manipulation and desired almond cultivars introduction.