Plant RNA-binding proteins as key players in abiotic stress physiology

Abstract

Abiotic stress has a major effect on global crop production. Hence, plants have evolved and developed several response mechanisms to survive and grow under abiotic stresses. Plant cells can sense and respond to changes in different environmental stresses due to the specific modifications observed in gene expression, metabolism, and physiology. Only a few recognized sensors have been found due to the difficulty of functional redundancy in genes that code for sensor proteins. A defect in one gene causes no remarkable phenotypic changes in stress responses. Recent research has identified crucial RNA-binding proteins (RBPs) important for stimulus-specific responses. RBPs play a crucial part in plants’ growth and development, post-transcriptional gene regulation, and RNA metabolism induced during stress responses. Among the currently identified over 200 different RBPs, the majority of which are plant-specific and carry out plant-specific functions. As an essential component of plants’ adaptive process in different environmental conditions, RBPs regulate the following processes: RNA stability, RNA export, pre-mRNA splicing, polyadenylation, and chromatin modification. Plants have also developed different defense responses or molecular mechanisms to combat stress via genotypic and phenotypic expressions. With a unique understanding of RBPs in other organisms, RBPs functions in a plant are still limited. Hence, this review discusses the latest developments in RBPs function during the development and growth of plants, primarily under abiotic stress circumstances.