Abstract
Drought stress causes changes in the morphological, physiological, biochemical and molecular characteristics of plants. The response to drought in different plants may vary from avoidance, tolerance and escape to recovery from stress. This response is genetically programmed and regulated in a very complex yet synchronized manner. The crucial genetic regulations mediated by non-coding RNAs (ncRNAs) have emerged as game-changers in modulating the plant responses to drought and other abiotic stresses. The ncRNAs interact with their targets to form potentially subtle regulatory networks that control multiple genes to determine the overall response of plants. Many long and small drought-responsive ncRNAs have been identified and characterized in different plant varieties. The miRNA-based research is better documented, while lncRNA and transposon-derived RNAs are relatively new, and their cellular role is beginning to be understood. In this review, we have compiled the information on the categorization of non-coding RNAs based on their biogenesis and function. We also discuss the available literature on the role of long and small non-coding RNAs in mitigating drought stress in plants.
Highlights
About 80–95% fresh biomass of non-woody plants is occupied by water, which plays an important role in many aspects of plant life
In Cleistogenes, RNA-Seq analysis identified 52 long ncRNAs (lncRNAs) as target mimics for miRNAs [97]. These analyses clearly showed that lncRNAs are associated with the miRNA nodes and supported their regulatory role in plants
The steadily increasing world population has challenged the agricultural sector to produce a substantial amount of crops
Summary
About 80–95% fresh biomass of non-woody plants is occupied by water, which plays an important role in many aspects of plant life. Sequence analysis has proved to be an important tool to explore the differences in response to stress between sensitive and tolerant plants, such as sorghum [27], tomato [28], coffee [29], cassava [30], peanut [31], Populus [32], Trifolium [33], wheat [34], rice [35] and maize [36,37]. This has led to the identification of stress-responsive gene expression; our knowl-. This review highlights important updates on the available literature on the role of long and small ncRNAs in response to drought stress response in plants
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