Sunkar Ramanjulu, Chinnusamy Viswanathan, Zhu Jianhua, Zhu Jian-Kang
Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, 246 Noble Research Center, Oklahoma State University, Stillwater, OK 74078, USA.
Trends Plant Sci. 2007 Jul;12(7):301-9. doi: 10.1016/j.tplants.2007.05.001. Epub 2007 Jun 18.
Abiotic stress is one of the primary causes of crop losses worldwide. Much progress has been made in unraveling the complex stress response mechanisms, particularly in the identification of stress responsive protein-coding genes. In addition to protein coding genes, recently discovered microRNAs (miRNAs) and endogenous small interfering RNAs (siRNAs) have emerged as important players in plant stress responses. Initial clues suggesting that small RNAs are involved in plant stress responses stem from studies showing stress regulation of miRNAs and endogenous siRNAs, as well as from target predictions for some miRNAs. Subsequent studies have demonstrated an important functional role for these small RNAs in abiotic stress responses. This review focuses on recent advances, with emphasis on integration of small RNAs in stress regulatory networks.
非生物胁迫是全球作物减产的主要原因之一。在解析复杂的胁迫响应机制方面已经取得了很大进展，尤其是在鉴定胁迫响应蛋白编码基因方面。除了蛋白编码基因外，最近发现的 microRNA（miRNA）和内源性小干扰 RNA（siRNA）已成为植物胁迫响应中的重要参与者。表明小 RNA 参与植物胁迫响应的最初线索来自于显示 miRNA 和内源性 siRNA 的胁迫调控以及一些 miRNA 的靶标预测的研究。随后的研究证明了这些小 RNA 在非生物胁迫响应中的重要功能作用。本综述重点关注近期进展，尤其强调小 RNA 在胁迫调控网络中的整合。
