The Identification and Comparative Analysis of Non-Coding RNAs in Spores and Mycelia of <i>Penicillium expansum</i>

<i>Penicillium expansum</i> is the most popular post-harvest pathogen and causes blue mold disease in pome fruit and leads to significant economic losses worldwide every year. However, the fundamental regulation mechanisms of growth in <i>P. expansum</i> are unclear. Recently, non-coding RNAs (ncRNAs) have attracted more attention due to critical roles in normalizing gene expression and maintaining cellular genotypes in organisms. However, the research related to ncRNAs in <i>P. expansum</i> have not been reported. Therefore, to provide an overview of ncRNAs on composition, distribution, expression changes, and potential targets in the growth process, a comparative transcriptomic analysis was performed on spores and mycelia of <i>P. expansum</i> in the present study. A total of 2595 novel mRNAs, 3362 long non-coding RNAs (lncRNAs), 10 novel microRNAs (miRNAs), 86 novel small interfering RNAs (siRNAs), and 11,238 circular RNAs (circRNAs) were predicted and quantified. Of these, 1482 novel mRNAs, 5987 known mRNAs, 2047 lncRNAs, 40 miRNAs, 38 novel siRNAs, and 9235 circRNAs were differentially expressed (DE) in response to the different development stages. Afterward, the involved functions and pathways of DE RNAs were revealed via Gene Ontology (GO) and Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes (KEGG) database enrichment analysis. The interaction networks between mRNAs, lncRNAs, and miRNAs were also predicted based on their correlation coefficient of expression profiles. Among them, it was found that miR168 family members may play important roles in fungal growth due to their central location in the network. These findings will contribute to a better understanding on regulation machinery at the RNA level on fungal growth and provide a theoretical basis to develop novel control strategies against <i>P. expansum</i>.