Fruit ripening is a complicated process that is influenced by diverse factors at different regulation levels. The microRNAs (miRNAs), a class of endogenous small noncoding RNAs, are recently demonstrated to regulate several critical biological processes in various aspects of the fruit's life cycle. In this paper, to gain more insights into the regulatory mechanism of miRNAs in apple fruit ripening, a genome-wide identification of the sRNAome was implemented in the postharvest ‘Qinguan’ apple fruit. The ripening process of the postharvest apple fruit was significantly inhibited via the application of 1-MCP (1 µL/L). Totally, 569 miRNAs were successfully identified, including 132 known and 437 novel miRNAs, and 29 of them were significantly differentially expressed. The mdm-miR398a, mdm-miR395i-3p, mdm-miR395b, mdm-miR395d-3p, mdm-miR395h, mdm-miR395g-3p, and the novel-miR156 were identified to be the differentially expressed miRNAs. Moreover, after parsing the targets of these miRNAs, several transcription factors, such as ERF and WRKY, were found to be involved in the apple fruit ripening. The above results provide new information for understanding the sophisticated coordinated regulatory network of apple fruit ripening.

果实成熟是一个复杂的过程，受不同调控水平的多种因素影响。microRNA (miRNA) 是一类内源性小非编码 RNA，最近被证明可以调节水果生命周期各个方面的几个关键生物过程。在本文中，为了更深入地了解 miRNAs 在苹果果实成熟过程中的调控机制，在收获后的“青冠”苹果果实中实施了 sRNAome 的全基因组鉴定。1-MCP (1 µL/L) 的施用显着抑制了采后苹果果实的成熟过程。共成功鉴定出569个miRNAs，其中已知132个miRNAs和437个新miRNAs，其中29个具有显着差异表达。mdm-miR398a、mdm-miR395i-3p、mdm-miR395b、mdm-miR395d-3p、mdm-miR395h、mdm-miR395g-3p和新的-miR156被鉴定为差异表达的miRNA。此外，在解析这些miRNA的靶标后，发现ERF和WRKY等几种转录因子参与了苹果果实的成熟。上述结果为理解苹果果实成熟的复杂协调调控网络提供了新的信息。