SRNAome and transcriptome analysis provide insight into strawberry fruit ripening.

Strawberry fruit ripening is a complex process affected by multiple factors at different regulation levels. To elucidate the regulation mechanisms, the combined analysis of sRNAome and transcriptome were used. A total of 124 known and 190 novel miRNAs were found, 62 of them were significantly differentially expressed (DE). The targets of the DE miRNAs were parsed and several TFs, such as SPL, ARF, WRKY, and TCP, were found to be involved in ripening. Elevated CO can significantly postpone ripening and miR156, miR166f, miR171a, and miR171d were the DE miRNAs. Transcriptome analysis found 313 DE genes related to fruit ripening, including cell wall metabolism-related genes, color-related genes, ethylene-related genes, and genes encoding TFs such as MYB, SPL, NAC, TCP, and ARF. Based on above, a combined regulatory model involved in fruit ripening was created. These results provide valuable information for understanding the complicated coordinated regulatory network of strawberry fruit ripening.