Developmental regulation of Ran 3untranslated region during somatic embryogenesis in Dimocarpus longan Lour

• Long Ran 3′UTR contain more putative miRNA target sites.
• Ran is highly expressed at developmental stages with active cell proliferation.
• Ran transcripts with various 3'UTRs are developmentally regulated during longan SE.

Plant somatic embryogenesis (SE) is similar to zygotic embryogenesis and considered as a potential model for studying the regulation of gene expression during plant embryogenesis. Ran protein was shown to be crucial in longan SE. Ran is a highly conserved Small GTPase that plays crucial roles in multiple biological processes, such as cell proliferation. The function of Ran has been extensively studied in past years, but regulation of Ran expression remains elusive. In this study, 11 Ran 3′-untranslated regions (3′UTR) differing in their sequences and length were demonstrated and long 3′UTR contain more putative miRNA target sites. Quantitative reverse transcription PCR (qPCR) was employed to study expression of Ran 3′UTRs during longan SE. We showed that Ran 3′UTRs developmentally expressed during longan SE without lengthening as SE progress. Our results demonstrated that Ran 3′UTRs were highly expressed at the developmental stages of somatic embryogenesis that the cells divided rapidly and supported the role of Ran in cell proliferation. Developmental regulation of Ran 3′UTRs lengthen during longan SE suggested that the polymorphism of be Ran 3′UTRs could be functional.