Conclusion
MicroRNAs are a post-transcriptional mechanism with potential to impact
a large number of physiological systems, well suited for regulation of
diapause. There are a large number of miRNAs that are differentially
expressed during diapause in a dynamic manner through time, likely
impacting many different systems that are vital for diapause. By
searching at specific timepoints that are known to be critical for
diapause regulation, we were able to find a candidate miRNA that
potentially has a large impact on diapause progression by targeting
genes involved in the ecdysone pathway. Our ability to connect findings
to previous literature was limited by experimental design, as previous
studies only used single timepoint sampling (in vs. out of diapause),
and our results indicate that miRNA expression changes substantially
across the different stages of diapause progression. We find that miRNAs
likely both play a large and wide role in diapause phenotype by
targeting many genes, potentially targeting a critical pathway at a
critical time We find that miRNAs likely both play a large and wide role
in diapause phenotype by targeting many genes, potentially targeting a
critical pathway at a critical time. Future work should aim to link
miRNAs in diapause to broader global gene expression patterns, and to
mechanistically link hormonal regulation to miRNA expression.