Verticillium wilt is a vascular disease caused by Verticillium dahliae, which has a serious impact on the yield and quality of eggplant. MiRNAs regulates plant growth, development, environmental adaptation and other life activities by controlling the expression of target genes. Although miRNAs have been systematically studied by high-throughput sequencing in eggplant (Solanum melongena L.), their target genes are not identified systematically, which would provide the basis for exploring the mechanism of miRNA mediated gene regulation in response to Verticillium wilt of eggplant. In this study, degradome sequencing was performed using two libraries separately prepared from mock-inoculated and V. dahliae-inoculated seedlings of eggplants. A total of 122 target genes for 49 miRNAs families were identified. Of them, 62 target genes were significantly induced by V. dahliae, including 34 targets were found only in the inoculated seedlings library and 28 targets were shown to be differentially expressed between both two libraries. Further analysis showed that a conserved miRNA could target various genes ranging from one up to 15 or a target gene could be cleaved by 1–5 different miRNAs. QRT-PCR analysis on five miRNAs and their target genes confirmed the reliability of the degradome sequencing data. GO analysis revealed that target genes owned diverse biological functions and transcription regulation was the largest functional category. Analysis on KEGG showed that target genes were mainly involved in plant-pathogen interaction pathway and plant hormone signal transduction pathway to resist disease. This result will provide basic information for further studying the regulatory mechanism of eggplant miRNAs in response to Verticillium wilt infection.

黄萎病是由黄萎病引起的一种血管疾病，严重影响茄子的产量和品质。MiRNA通过控制靶基因的表达来调节植物的生长，发育，环境适应和其他生命活动。尽管已经通过高通量测序对茄子（Solanum melongena L.）中的miRNA进行了系统研究，但尚未系统地鉴定其靶基因，这将为探索miRNA介导对茄子黄萎病的基因调控机制提供基础。在这项研究中，使用从分别制备两个文库进行测序降解组模拟接种和黄萎病菌-接种茄子的幼苗。共鉴定到49个miRNA家族的122个靶基因。其中，有62个靶基因被大麦弧菌显着诱导，其中仅在接种的苗库中发现了34个靶基因，并且有28个靶基因在两个文库之间被差异表达。进一步的分析表明，保守的miRNA可以靶向一个至多达15个的各种基因，或者一个目标基因可以被1-5个不同的miRNA切割。对五个miRNA及其靶基因的QRT-PCR分析证实了降解组测序数据的可靠性。GO分析显示目标基因具有多种生物学功能，转录调控是最大的功能类别。对KEGG的分析表明，靶基因主要参与植物-病原体相互作用途径和植物激素信号转导途径来抵抗疾病。该结果将为进一步研究茄子miRNA对黄萎病感染的调控机制提供基础信息。