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Plant small RNAs: the essential epigenetic regulators of gene expression for salt-stress responses and tolerance

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Abstract

Saline environment cues distort the plant growth, development and crop yield. Epigenetics has emerged as one of the prime themes in plant functional genomics for molecular-stress-physiology research, as copious studies have provided new visions into the epigenetic control of stress adaptations. The epigenetic control is associated with the regulation of the expression of stress-related genes which also comprises many steady alterations inherited in next cellular generation as stress memory. These epigenetic amendments also implicate induction of small RNA (sRNA)-mediated fine-tuning of transcriptional and post-transcriptional regulations of gene expression. These tiny (19–24 nt) RNA species, particularly microRNAs (miRNAs) besides endogenous small interfering RNA (siRNA) have emerged as important responsive entities for epigenetic modulation of salt-stress effects on plants. There is a recent upsurge in development of tools and databases useful for prediction, identification and validation of small RNAs (sRNAs) and their target messenger RNAs (mRNAs). Therefore, these small but key regulatory molecules have received a wide attention in post-genomic era as potential targets for engineering stress tolerance in major glycophytic crops, though it is yet to be explored optimally. This review aims to provide critical updates on plant sRNAs as key epigenetic regulators of plant salt-stress responses, their target prediction and validation, computational tools and databases available for plant small RNAs, besides discussing their roles in salt-stress regulatory networks and adaptive mechanisms in plants, with special emphasis on their exploration for engineering salinity tolerance in plants.

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Acknowledgements

The research in VK’s lab is supported through the Science and Engineering Research Board (SERB), Department of Science and Technology (DST), Government of India funds (grant number SR/FT/LS-93/2011 and EMR/2016/003,896). The authors acknowledge the use of facilities created under DST-FIST program and Star College Scheme Department of Biotechnology (DBT), Government of India, implemented at Modern College, Ganeshkhind, Pune.

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Correspondence to Vinay Kumar or Shabir H. Wani.

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The authors declare that they have no conflict of interest.

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Communicated by Tarek Hewezi.

For special issue on: “Epigenetic regulation of plant development and stress responses” in Plant Cell Reports.

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Kumar, V., Khare, T., Shriram, V. et al. Plant small RNAs: the essential epigenetic regulators of gene expression for salt-stress responses and tolerance. Plant Cell Rep 37, 61–75 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00299-017-2210-4

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00299-017-2210-4

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