Role of micrornas in plant metabolic homeostasis under nutrient deficiencies and abiotic stresses

Plants being sessile autotrophs experience different abiotic stresses and nutritional deficiencies. Stress adaptation of a plant is possible by production of various biochemicals and fine regulation of phytohormone and stress response signaling modulated by transcription factors. MicroRNAs (miRNAs) are small non-coding RNAs regulating gene expression in sequence specific manner. Originally discovered in worm Caenorhabditis elegans, these have been identified in all eukaryotes with more than 35000 miRNAs being registered with miRbase (release 21). MicroRNAs regulate the expression of transcription factors and many metabolically important enzyme coding genes for plant adaptation in different environmental conditions.