The field of the present disclosure relates to plant molecular biology and, inparticular,to constructs and methods to down-regulate the expression of target genes.Described herein are isolated nucleic acid fragments encoding, artificialmiRNAs andtheir use in down-regulating gene expression. In one aspect of the presentdisclosure,an artificial miRNA precursor is achieved by modifying the deoxyribonucleotidesequence that encodes a soybean miRNA precursor. In this aspect, the miRNA andstar sequences of the miRNA precursor are replaced with variable nucleotidesubsequences designed to down-regulate the expression of a target gene. Inanotheraspect of the present disclosure, a plant cell is transformed with a nucleicacidconstruct comprising a nucleic acid fragment that encodes an artificial miRNAprecursor for reducing the expression of a target gene.
