The Role of Long Noncoding RNAs in Plant Stress Tolerance

Abstract

Plants must adapt to multiple biotic and abiotic stresses ; thus, sensing and responding to environmental signals is imperative for their survival. Moreover, understanding these responses is imperative for efforts to improve plant yield and consistency. Regulation of transcript levels is a key aspect of the plant response to environmental signals. Long noncoding RNAs (lncRNAs) have gained widespread attention in recent years with the advance of high-throughput sequencing technologies. As important biological regulators, lncRNAs have been implicated in a wide range of developmental processes and diseases in animals. However, knowledge of the role that lncRNAs play in plant stress tolerance remains limited. Here, we review recent studies on the identification, characteristics, classification, and biological functions of lncRNAs in response to various stresses, including bacterial pathogens, excess light, drought, salinity, hypoxia, extreme temperatures, and nitrogen/phosphate deficiency. We also discuss possible directions for future research.

The hypoxia–reoxygenation stress in plants

“…Hypoxia-responsive miRNAs, trans -acting siRNAs, and natural antisense siRNA (natsiRNA) have all been reported to regulate responses to hypoxia ( Moldovan et al, 2010 a , b ). Long non-coding RNAs (lncRNAs) are differentially expressed upon waterlogging stress ( Yu et al , 2020 ), and they also seem to regulate plant tolerance to hypoxia ( Song and Zhang, 2017 ). The hypoxia-responsive and salicylic acid (SA)-induced AtR8 lncRNA seems to be involved in activating nonexpressor of pathogenesis-related gene 1 (NPR1)-mediated and pathogenesis-related protein 1 (PR-1)-independent defense and root elongation through functional interaction with WRKY53/WRKY70 transcription factors ( Li et al , 2020 ).…”

Insight into the Role of Epigenetic Processes in Abiotic and Biotic Stress Response in Wheat and Barley

“…So far, several subclasses of siRNAs have been identified, some of which function in PTGS and others function in transcriptional gene silencing (TGS) [98,99]. LncRNAs are widespread in all species and take part in gene expression regulation at transcription and post-transcription, epigenetic level [100,101]. LncRNAs share similarities with mRNAs in the structure and biogenesis process, and they are transcribed by RNA polymerase II (RNAPII) and poly-adenylated [102].…”

Concerto on Chromatin: Interplays of Different Epigenetic Mechanisms in Plant Development and Environmental Adaptation

“…Noncoding RNAs (ncRNAs) that lack a protein-encoding function play key roles in the regulation of plant gene expression [43][44][45][46][47][48][49][50][51][52]. Based on their length, regulatory ncRNA could be separated into long ncRNAs (lncRNAs) and short ncRNAs such as microRNAs (miRNAs) and small interfering RNAs (siRNAs) [43][44][45][46]. Generally, lncRNAs contain more than 200 nucleotides (nts), whereas miRNA contain 18-24 nts.…”