Abstract
The complexity of the subcellular processes that take place during meiosis requires a significant remodeling of cellular metabolism and dynamic changes in the organization of chromosomes and the cytoskeleton. Recently, investigations of meiotic transcriptomes have revealed additional noncoding RNA factors (ncRNAs) that directly or indirectly influence the course of meiosis. Plant meiosis is the point at which almost all known noncoding RNA-dependent regulatory pathways meet to influence diverse processes related to cell functioning and division. ncRNAs have been shown to prevent transposon reactivation, create germline-specific DNA methylation patterns, and affect the expression of meiosis-specific genes. They can also influence chromosome-level processes, including the stimulation of chromosome condensation, the definition of centromeric chromatin, and perhaps even the regulation of meiotic recombination. In many cases, our understanding of the mechanisms underlying these processes remains limited. In this review, we will examine how the different functions of each type of ncRNA have been adopted in plants, devoting attention to both well-studied examples and other possible functions about which we can only speculate for now. We will also briefly discuss the most important challenges in the investigation of ncRNAs in plant meiosis.
Highlights
The basis of sexual reproduction is the fusion of two haploid cells called gametes to form a diploid cell that is the beginning of a new individual (Villeneuve and Hillers, 2001)
We focused on discussing the research and experimental work addressing processes for which the influence of noncoding RNAs (ncRNAs) on the initiation and course of meiosis is known or could be deduced
MiRNAs are loaded onto Argonaute (AGO) effector proteins and usually transported to the cytoplasm to regulate their target gene expression (Voinnet, 2009). miRNAs recognize transcripts of their target genes based on sequence complementarity and repress their expression by transcript cleavage, which dominates in plants, or translational repression, which is common in animals (Voinnet, 2009)
Summary
The basis of sexual reproduction is the fusion of two haploid cells called gametes to form a diploid cell that is the beginning of a new individual (Villeneuve and Hillers, 2001). There is no information on the specific role of mncRNAs in meiosis; this group of ncRNAs will not be included in this review Both sRNAs and lncRNAs have been found in meiotic transcriptomes. All sRNAs are single-stranded noncoding RNAs that function as gene/transposon repressors, which can operate via the cleavage of target transcripts, inhibition of mRNA translation, or repression of chromatin modification (Castel and Martienssen, 2013). MiR172 regulates floral transition and flower development by repressing the AP2 TF gene family in A. thaliana (Aukerman and Sakai, 2003) This function is evolutionarily conserved, as it has been reported even in distantly related species, including soybean, maize, rice, and barley (Tang and Chu, 2017). The miR159-GAMYB pathway is conserved in higher plants and is present in both monocots, such as rice and barley (Tsuji et al, 2006), and dicots, such as Arabidopsis (Palatnik et al, 2007) and strawberry (Csukasi et al, 2012)
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