Role of microRNAs in secondary metabolite regulation of medicinal plants: Current status challenges and future perspectives

MicroRNAs are small, non-coding RNA molecules that have regulatory control over the miscellaneous biological activities in plants and animals. Medicinal plants are a rich repository of secondary metabolites that exhibit a wide variety of therapeutic properties. The functional regulation of miRNAs to regulate secondary metabolism is still inadequately understood. Similarly, the role of multiple target regulation systems for single miRNAs is poorly known. The functional significance of the variables, applications, and approaches of different miRNAs that influence secondary metabolite control are investigated in this review. This review article focuses on secondary metabolite control by diverse miRNA families, growing miRNA techniques, and cross-kingdom regulation of plant miRNAs on human health in depth. Here, challenging and limiting aspects of miRNA research have been covered. The role of Phyto miRNAs as a dietary supplement in the prevention of diseases such as COVID-19 has been debated. We offer an update and address the implications of plant miRNA mediated secondary metabolite control, as well as the potential for this interesting regulatory mechanism to be used as an enhanced therapy for a variety of diseases.