Orchestration of MicroRNAs
and Transcription Factors in the Regulation
of Plant Abiotic Stress Response
8
Sombir Rao, Sonia Balyan, Sarita Jha, Chandni Bansal,
Jaishri Rubina Das, Apoorva Gupta, and Saloni Mathur
Abstract
Plants have to tackle daily vagaries of the environment like temperature extremes,
drought, excess salt, etc. Together with nutritional imbalances present in the soil,
these abiotic stresses are major obstacles in achieving sustainable food production. To mitigate the effects of harsh environmental conditions, an array of
regulatory pathways has evolved in plants to coordinate gene expression and
cellular signaling to maintain cellular homeostasis. This dynamic reprogramming
of gene expression is majorly governed by two trans-regulators: the transcription
factors (TFs) and microRNAs (miRNAs). While TFs regulate transcription by
binding to the cis-regulatory elements in the promoters of various genes, the
miRNAs regulate gene expression by silencing their target genes through mRNA
cleavage, translational repression, or DNA methylation. Recent studies have
elucidated the intricate stress responsive regulatory circuits involving TFs and
miRNAs as focal nodes. Several TF:miRNA modules have been shown to be
active under various environmental stress conditions like HSFA1b/A7b:miR398
(heat stress); SPL7:miR398 and HY5-SPL7:miR408 (copper starvation); PHR1:
miR399 (phosphate starvation); and SLIM1:miR395 (sulfate deficiency). Since
many of the miRNA targets are TFs themselves, several of these modules work as
critical sub-networks in abiotic stress response including the miR156:SPL,
miR159:MYB, miR169:NF-YA, and miR166:HD-ZIP. This control of plant
gene expression at both transcriptional and post-transcriptional levels regulated
by TFs and miRNAs, respectively, leads to the establishment of complex regulatory networks which are involved in abiotic stress response in plants. In this
chapter, we have reviewed and discussed the detailed information available on the
S. Rao · S. Balyan · S. Jha · C. Bansal · J. R. Das · A. Gupta · S. Mathur (*)
National Institute of Plant Genome Research, New Delhi, India
e-mail: saloni@nipgr.ac.in
# The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Singapore Pte
Ltd. 2020
B. Giri, M. P. Sharma (eds.), Plant Stress Biology,
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-15-9380-2_8
251
and Transcription Factors in the Regulation
of Plant Abiotic Stress Response
8
Sombir Rao, Sonia Balyan, Sarita Jha, Chandni Bansal,
Jaishri Rubina Das, Apoorva Gupta, and Saloni Mathur
Abstract
Plants have to tackle daily vagaries of the environment like temperature extremes,
drought, excess salt, etc. Together with nutritional imbalances present in the soil,
these abiotic stresses are major obstacles in achieving sustainable food production. To mitigate the effects of harsh environmental conditions, an array of
regulatory pathways has evolved in plants to coordinate gene expression and
cellular signaling to maintain cellular homeostasis. This dynamic reprogramming
of gene expression is majorly governed by two trans-regulators: the transcription
factors (TFs) and microRNAs (miRNAs). While TFs regulate transcription by
binding to the cis-regulatory elements in the promoters of various genes, the
miRNAs regulate gene expression by silencing their target genes through mRNA
cleavage, translational repression, or DNA methylation. Recent studies have
elucidated the intricate stress responsive regulatory circuits involving TFs and
miRNAs as focal nodes. Several TF:miRNA modules have been shown to be
active under various environmental stress conditions like HSFA1b/A7b:miR398
(heat stress); SPL7:miR398 and HY5-SPL7:miR408 (copper starvation); PHR1:
miR399 (phosphate starvation); and SLIM1:miR395 (sulfate deficiency). Since
many of the miRNA targets are TFs themselves, several of these modules work as
critical sub-networks in abiotic stress response including the miR156:SPL,
miR159:MYB, miR169:NF-YA, and miR166:HD-ZIP. This control of plant
gene expression at both transcriptional and post-transcriptional levels regulated
by TFs and miRNAs, respectively, leads to the establishment of complex regulatory networks which are involved in abiotic stress response in plants. In this
chapter, we have reviewed and discussed the detailed information available on the
S. Rao · S. Balyan · S. Jha · C. Bansal · J. R. Das · A. Gupta · S. Mathur (*)
National Institute of Plant Genome Research, New Delhi, India
e-mail: saloni@nipgr.ac.in
# The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Singapore Pte
Ltd. 2020
B. Giri, M. P. Sharma (eds.), Plant Stress Biology,
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-15-9380-2_8
251