Drought-Responsive miRNAs in Vegetables
摘要
Plant biotechnology is an emerging area of science as it can generate solutions for food security and sustainable agriculture. The inverse proportion between the increase in human population and negative impacts of climate change and global warming has become a challenge for plant scientists to overcome the limitations in human food demand. Drought stress is one of the most important abiotic stress factors prevalent in many parts of the world and play a major role in limiting plant productivity. Identification of plant stress response mechanisms and pathways is important to better understand how to solve these problems by connecting the plants behavior with biotechnological tools. After their discovery in 1993, non-coding RNAs, mainly microRNAs, have become an important topic of science in terms of research and application. Their role in regulation of gene expression and expressional changes under stress conditions made miRNAs a focus in plant science with a potential solution to tackle the problems in agricultural production. In this chapter, stress responsive miRNAs and their regulatory mechanism in vegetables under drought stress conditions will be discussed to reveal the potential of miRNAs in terms of sustainable agriculture and improved vegetable productivity.