Chapter 22 - Role of small RNA and RNAi technology toward improvement of abiotic stress tolerance in plants

Abstract

RNA interference (RNAi) technology involves sequence-specific gene regulation by small RNAs (sRNA), and it has emerged as one of the promising approaches to study plant functional genomics. RNAi is efficient, precise, stable, and highly preferred than the antisense technology that was prominent earlier. In the last two decades, RNAi has been successfully employed in delineating the functional roles of several essential in different plant species. These genes are involved in somatic embryogenesis, fiber development, inactivation of allergens/toxins in food crops, bio-fortification, biotic, and abiotic stress tolerance. In this chapter, we comprehensively review the role of RNAi-based approach in imparting plant abiotic stress tolerance and the achievements attained in the direction so far. Also, we have discussed the recently identified class II type VI CRISPR (clustered regularly interspaced short palindromic repeat)/Cas13 system that targets RNA and could be utilized in various novel and important biotechnological applications in plants. Finally, we have briefly discussed the challenges and prospects of sRNA and RNAi-based approaches in crop improvement.