Abstract
Climate change and stressful environmental conditions severely hamper crop growth, development and yield. Plants respond to environmental perturbations, through their plasticity provided by key-genes, governed at post-/transcriptional levels. Gene-regulation in plants is a multilevel process controlled by diverse cellular entities that includes transcription factors (TF), epigenetic regulators and non-coding RNAs beside others. There are successful studies confirming the role of epigenetic modifications (DNA-methylation/histone-modifications) in gene expression. Recent years have witnessed emergence of a highly specialized field the “Epitranscriptomics”. Epitranscriptomics deals with investigating post-transcriptional RNA chemical-modifications present across the life forms that change structural, functional and biological characters of RNA. However, deeper insights on of epitranscriptomic modifications, with >140 types known so far, are to be understood fully. Researchers have identified epitranscriptome marks (writers, erasers and readers) and mapped the site-specific RNA modifications (m6A, m5C, 3′ uridylation, etc.) responsible for fine-tuning gene expression in plants. Simultaneous advancement in sequencing platforms, upgraded bioinformatic tools and pipelines along with conventional labelled techniques have further given a statistical picture of these epitranscriptomic modifications leading to their potential applicability in crop improvement and developing climate-smart crops. We present herein the insights on epitranscriptomic machinery in plants and how epitranscriptome and epitranscriptomic modifications underlying plant growth, development and environmental stress responses/adaptations. Third-generation sequencing technology, advanced bioinformatics tools and databases being used in plant epitranscriptomics are also discussed. Emphasis is given on potential exploration of epitranscriptome engineering for crop-improvement and developing environmental stress tolerant plants covering current status, challenges and future directions.
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