primary miRNAs accumulated in rbdB- and drnB- strains.

<p>A: Schematic representation of ddi-miR-1176 and ddi-miR-1177 transcripts and predicted pre-miRNA structures. Arrows indicate primers that were used to amplify primary miRNA transcripts. As a control, RT-PCR on <i>corA</i> mRNA was performed. B: Gene specific (reverse) primers were used to generate cDNA molecules: #1828 (<i>corA</i>), DM059 (pri-ddi-miR-1176), DM083 (pri-ddi-miR-1177). The primer sets P1/P2 (DM058/DM059), P2/P3 (DM082, DM083) and #1828/#1829 were used in the following PCR reaction to amplify pri-ddi-miR-1176 (390 bp), pri-ddi-miR-1177 (283 bp) and <i>corA</i> (200 bp) fragments respectively. The number in brackets indicates number of PCR-cycles. For unknown reasons, the minus RT control for pri-ddi-miR-1176 in the AX2 wild type always produced a weak signal.