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Review
. 2015 Apr;66(7):1749-61.
doi: 10.1093/jxb/erv013. Epub 2015 Feb 19.

MicroRNA: a new target for improving plant tolerance to abiotic stress

Baohong Zhang  1
Affiliations
Review

MicroRNA: a new target for improving plant tolerance to abiotic stress

Baohong Zhang. J Exp Bot. 2015 Apr.

Abstract

MicroRNAs (miRNAs) are an extensive class of endogenous, small RNA molecules that sit at the heart of regulating gene expression in multiple developmental and signalling pathways. Recent studies have shown that abiotic stresses induce aberrant expression of many miRNAs, thus suggesting that miRNAs may be a new target for genetically improving plant tolerance to certain stresses. These studies have also shown that miRNAs respond to environmental stresses in a miRNA-, stress-, tissue-, and genotype-dependent manner. During abiotic stress, miRNAs function by regulating target genes within the miRNA-target gene network and by controlling signalling pathways and root development. Generally speaking, stress-induced miRNAs lead to down-regulation of negative regulators of stress tolerance whereas stress-inhibited miRNAs allow the accumulation and function of positive regulators. Currently, the majority of miRNA-based studies have focused on the identification of miRNAs that are responsive to different stress conditions and analysing their expression profile changes during these treatments. This has predominately been accomplished using deep sequencing technologies and other expression analyses, such as quantitative real-time PCR. In the future, more function and expression studies will be necessary in order to elucidate the common miRNA-mediated regulatory mechanisms that underlie tolerance to different abiotic stresses. The use of artificial miRNAs, as well as overexpression and knockout/down of both miRNAs and their targets, will be the best techniques for determining the specific roles of individual miRNAs in response to environmental stresses.

Keywords: Abiotic stress; climate change; drought; gene network; microRNA; salinity..

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Figures

Fig. 1.
Fig. 1.
A miRNA responds to an environmental abiotic stress in a stress-, species-, and miRNA-dependent manner. Various miRNAs were aberrantly expressed under different abiotic stress treatments in a multiple plant species. Red colour indicates up-regulated (u). Green colour indicates down-regulated (d). Yellow colour indicates that both up-regulation and down-regulation were observed among different tissues or at different developmental stages. The data were based on current literature of Arabidopsis, rice, wheat, barley, switchgrass, and cotton.
Fig. 2.
Fig. 2.
The miRNA–target gene network is involved in plant response to environmental abiotic stresses. Different stresses induced and/or inhibited the expression of individual miRNAs that target transcription factors and/or stress-related genes. This network further regulates plant development as well as response to abiotic stress. Plant hormones are also involved in this process through directly/indirectly regulating the expression of miRNAs and their targets. (This figure is available in colour at JXB online.)
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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