Role of long non-coding RNAs in rice reproductive development

Abstract

Rice is a staple crop, feeding over half of the global population. The future demand of population growth and climate change requires substantial rice improvement. Recent advances in rice genomics have highlighted the vital role of the non-coding part of the genome. The protein-coding regions account for only a tiny portion of the eukaryotic genome, and most of the genomic regions transcribe copious amounts of non-coding RNAs. Of these, the long non-coding RNAs, including linear non-coding RNAs (lncRNAs) and circular non-coding RNAs (circRNAs), have been shown to play critical roles in various developmental processes by regulating the expression of genes and functions of proteins at transcriptional, post-transcriptional and post-translational levels. With the advances in next-generation sequencing technologies, a substantial number of long non-coding RNAs have been found to be expressed in plant reproductive organs in a cell- and tissue-specific manner suggesting their reproductive development-related functions. Accumulating evidence points towards the critical role of these non-coding RNAs in flowering, anther, and pollen development, ovule and seed development and photoperiod and temperature regulation of male fertility. In this mini review, we provide a brief overview of the role of the linear and circular long non-coding RNAs in rice reproductive development and control of fertility and crop yield.

Melatonin and Abiotic Stress Tolerance in Crop Plants

“…The plant reproduction stage is highly vulnerable to temperature stress. The stress conditions occurring through the flowering and seed set stage affect the fertility and quality–quantity of the yield [ 92 ]. However, limited studies have focused on applying exogenous melatonin to minimise the adverse effects of abiotic stress during plant reproductive stages.…”

Identifying long non-coding RNAs involved in heat stress response during wheat pollen development

“…LncRNAs, as regulatory molecules, play crucial roles during pollen development and progression; (Xiao-Yan et al, 2004;Ding et al, 2012;Babaei et al, 2022). For example, sufficient expression of lncRNA LONG-DAY-SPECIFIC MALE-FERTILITY-ASSOCIATED RNA or in short, LDMAR is essential for pollen development and fertility in rice; even a single nucleotide mutation alters the secondary structure and expression of LDMAR, which leads to photoperiod-sensitive male sterility (Ding et al, 2012).…”

“…LncRNAs show lower inter-species sequence conservation, lower expression, and higher tissue-specificity expression compared to protein-coding RNAs ( Golicz et al., 2018a ). LncRNAs are classified as sense, antisense, intronic, or intergenic based on their genomic location and transcriptional direction ( Babaei et al., 2022 ). In addition, lncRNAs can be identified as “ cis -acting” when they control gene expression at or close to their transcriptional site or “ trans -acting” when they move from their transcriptional sites to act in other locations in the nucleus or cytoplasm ( Gil and Ulitsky, 2020 ).…”