Plant MicroRNAs Responsive to Fungal Infection

Abstract

MicroRNAs (miRNAs) are endogenous small RNAs transcribed from non-coding DNA, which have the capacity to base pair with the target mRNAs (messenger RNAs) to repress their translation or resulted in cleavage. We have paid much attention on the DNA and its coded proteins, the discovery of miRNAs as gene negatively regulators has led to a fundamental change in understanding of post-transcriptional gene regulation in plants. Fungal pathogens infection is the main cause of most economic crops diseases. Unlike humans, plants don’t evolved to have a adaptive immune system, they protect themselves with a mechanism consists of activation and response. Recently, high throughput sequencing validated that miRNA play a crucial role in plant-fungus interaction. A better understanding of miRNA-mediated disease mechanism in fungi should clarify the strategy of crop disease control. MiRNA-based manipulations as gene suppressors, such as artificial miRNAs, may emerge as a new alternative approach for the improvement of crops and control of crop disease.