Figure 1

Analysis of the identified conserved and less-conserved miRNA expression in apple tissues. (a, b) Heat map and read abundance of the conserved (a) and less-conserved (b) miRNAs in four tissues. The read abundance was normalized and expressed as reads per million (RPM) of genome-matched reads in each tissue. Only reads having two or fewer mismatches to miRNA sequences were counted for this analysis. Read abundance is also denoted by color, as illustrated at the top-right corner of each panel. miRNAs selected for validation by RNA gel blot analysis are underlined. (c) RNA gel blot analysis of selected miRNAs in different tissues. Sizes of small RNA markers are indicated at left in nucleotides (nt). Blotting results from probing and reprobing the same filter were grouped together. The apple U6 gene serves as a loading control.