From Trash to Luxury: The Potential Role of Plant LncRNA in DNA Methylation During Abiotic Stress

Abstract

Remarkable progress has been made in elucidating important roles of plant non-coding RNAs. Among these RNAs, long noncoding RNAs (lncRNAs) have gained widespread attention, especially their role in plant environmental stress responses. LncRNAs act at different levels of gene expression regulation, and one of these mechanisms is by recruitment of DNA methyltransferases or demethylases to regulate the target gene transcription. In this mini-review, we highlight the function of lncRNAs, including their potential role in RNA-directed DNA Methylation (RdDM) silencing pathway and their potential function under abiotic stresses conditions. Moreover, we also present and discuss studies of lncRNAs in crops. Finally, we propose a path outlook for future research that may be important for plant breeding.

Role of environmentally induced epigenetic transgenerational inheritance in evolutionary biology: Unified Evolution Theory

“…The different epigenetic factors do not only act independently, but integrate with each other to provide a level of epigenetic complexity to accommodate the needs of cellular development and differentiation. For example, ncRNA can facilitate DNA methylation processes [ 58 ] ( Fig. 1 ).…”

Non-Coding RNAs in Response to Drought Stress

“…Their expression levels vary significantly in different tissues and over different developmental stages. The lncRNAs also undergo dynamic regulatory adjustments during the response to abiotic stress [96,[102][103][104][105][106] and pathogen invasion [101].…”

A Comparative Transcriptome Analysis of Purple and Yellow Fleshed Potato Tubers Reveals Long Non-coding RNAs and their Targets Functioned in Anthocyanin Biosynthesis

“…As a class of non-coding RNAs, lncRNAs which were initially regarded as "transcriptional noise" [23], have been reported to play crucial roles in various biological processes such as plant development [34], fruit ripening [35,36], stress responses [37,38] and anthocyanin biosynthesis [31]. Although thousands of lncRNAs related to anthocyanin synthesis were identi ed in fruits of several plant species [21,30,31], the lncRNAs regulating anthocyanin biosynthesis in potato tubers have not yet been reported.…”

“…LncRNAs perform their functions by binding to DNA, RNA or proteins via multiple different regulatory mechanisms [23].…”

“…Additionally, lncRNAs were identi ed to act as targets of miRNAs and regulate gene expression by competitively interact with miRNAs [22]. Some lncRNAs can function as precursors of miRNAs and TasiRNA (trans-acting small interfering) and mediate RdDM (RNA-directed DNA methylation) scilencing [23]. Also, some antisense lncRNAs may regulate gene silencing, transcription and stabilization by binding to mRNAs on the sense strand via complementary pairing of bases [5].…”