From environmental responses to adaptation: the roles of plant lncRNAs

Abstract

As sessile organisms, plants are continuously exposed to heterogeneous and changing environments and constantly need to adapt their growth strategies. They have evolved complex mechanisms to recognize various stress factors, activate appropriate signaling pathways, and respond accordingly by reprogramming the expression of multiple genes at the transcriptional, post-transcriptional, and even epigenome levels to tolerate stressful conditions such as drought, high temperature, nutrient deficiency, and pathogenic interactions. Apart from protein-coding genes, long non-coding RNAs (lncRNAs) have emerged as key players in plant adaptation to environmental stresses. They are transcripts larger than 200 nucleotides without protein-coding potential. Still, they appear to regulate a wide range of processes, including epigenetic modifications and chromatin reorganization, as well as transcriptional and post-transcriptional modulation of gene expression, allowing plant adaptation to various environmental stresses. LncRNAs can positively or negatively modulate stress responses, affecting processes such as hormone signaling, temperature tolerance, and nutrient deficiency adaptation. Moreover, they also seem to play a role in stress memory, wherein prior exposure to mild stress enhances plant ability to adapt to subsequent stressful conditions. In this review, we summarize the contribution of lncRNAs in plant adaptation to biotic and abiotic stresses, as well as in stress memory. The complex evolutionary conservation of lncRNAs is also discussed and provides insights into future research directions in this field.

Long Noncoding RNAs in Response to Hyperosmolarity Stress, but Not Salt Stress, Were Mainly Enriched in the Rice Roots

“…Protein phosphylation/dephosphorylation are major signaling events induced by osmotic stress in higher plants. According to previous studies on lncRNAs related to stress, we also discovered the connection between lncRNAs and a series of kinases including serine/threonine protein kinase [ 67 , 68 ]. Especially, the function of serine/threonine protein kinase TaSnRK2.4 involved in the regulation of enhanced osmotic potential, growth, and development under both normal and stress conditions in Arabidopsis was characterized [ 69 ].…”