Emergence and evolution of canonical microRNAs: A case study in <i>Arabidopsis halleri</i> and <i>A. lyrata</i>

MicroRNAs are a class of small RNAs that are 21 or 22 nucleotides (nts) long and have been shown to play 9 critical roles in various plant life processes, including growth and immunity (Meyers and Axtell, 2019; 10 Lopez-Gomollon and Baulcombe, 2022).Canonical miRNAs are generated through a two-step cleavage 11 process conducted by DICER-LIKE 1 (DCL1) from longer, imperfectly paired, hairpin-like RNA precursors