Abstract
As sessile species, plants have to deal with the rapidly changing environment. In response to these environmental conditions, plants employ a plethora of response mechanisms that provide broad phenotypic plasticity to allow the fine-tuning of the external cues related reactions. Molecular biology has been transformed by the major breakthroughs in high-throughput transcriptome sequencing and expression analysis using next-generation sequencing (NGS) technologies. These innovations have provided substantial progress in the identification of genomic regions as well as underlying basis influencing transcriptional and post-transcriptional regulation of abiotic stress response. Non-coding RNAs (ncRNAs), particularly microRNAs (miRNAs), short interfering RNAs (siRNAs), and long non-coding RNAs (lncRNAs), have emerged as essential regulators of plants abiotic stress response. However, shared traits in the biogenesis of ncRNAs and the coordinated cross-talk among ncRNAs mechanisms contribute to the complexity of these molecules and might play an essential part in regulating stress responses. Herein, we highlight the current knowledge of plant microRNAs, siRNAs, and lncRNAs, focusing on their origin, biogenesis, modes of action, and fundamental roles in plant response to abiotic stresses.
Highlights
Plants are sessile species that cannot evade stress but require mechanisms of avoidance and/or tolerance for survival when exposed to ever-changing environmental conditions
We summarize the current tremendous progress on Non-coding RNAs (ncRNAs) molecules from miRNAs, short interfering RNAs (siRNAs) to long non-coding RNAs (lncRNAs) with an extensive emphasis on their origin, biogenesis, modes of action, and diverse roles orchestrating plant abiotic stress responses
The expression of miR159 in maize and Arabidopsis was suppressed in response to drought stress, but enhanced in rice and wheat, while miR399 was up-regulated in maize and wheat, but down-regulated in rice. miR168, miR397, and miR188 were all enhanced in Arabidopsis and suppressed in maize (Figure 6) [86,91,92]
Summary
Plants are sessile species that cannot evade stress but require mechanisms of avoidance and/or tolerance for survival when exposed to ever-changing environmental conditions. Despite substantial scientific research that have extensively focused on the regulatory mechanisms of coding proteins, recent findings have pinpointed the essential functions of ncRNAs in controlling transcriptional and post-transcriptional gene expression levels during plant developmental and environmental stress responses [16]. Long non-coding RNAs are transcripts that exceed more than 200 base pair (bp) in length and cannot be translated into protein [37] They are classified into cis-natural antisense (cis-NATs), trans-natural antisense transcripts (trans-NATs), and pseudogenes [38], sense or antisense (strand of origin) [39], divergent, or convergent (orientation of transcription), and as intronic or intergenic (location) [40] (Figure 4). LncRNAs control gene expression through the hijacking of protein and miRNAs, regulating mRNA stability and translation, and changing chromatin status [44]
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