Unravelling the epigenetic roles of long non-coding RNAs in plant drought resistance
Abstract
Drought stress is one of the most severe abiotic constraints limiting plant growth, productivity, and global food security, with its impact intensifying under climate change. Plants adapt to drought through complex physiological, transcriptional, and epigenetic regulatory networks. Among these, long non-coding RNAs (lncRNAs) have emerged as critical regulators that integrate transcriptional control with chromatin-level modulation. Once considered transcriptional noise, lncRNAs are now recognised as dynamic molecular regulators that fine-tune drought-responsive gene expression through chromatin remodelling, histone modifications, DNA methylation, RNA-directed DNA methylation (RdDM), and lncRNA-microRNA crosstalk. These mechanisms regulate key adaptive pathways, including abscisic acid (ABA) signalling, reactive oxygen species (ROS) homeostasis, osmotic adjustment, and root system plasticity. Emerging evidence further highlights the role of lncRNAs in epigenetic stress memory, enabling plants to maintain a primed transcriptional state and respond more efficiently to recurrent drought episodes. This review summarises recent advances in the epigenetic functions of lncRNAs in plant drought adaptation, with particular emphasis on chromatin dynamics, stress memory, and lncRNA-mediated regulatory networks. We also discuss insights from integrated omics approaches and highlight the translational potential of drought-responsive lncRNAs for developing climate-resilient crops.
Read the paper
Related studies
- Regulation of nucleolus assembly by non-coding RNA polymerase II transcripts
- For a Healthy Histone Code, a Little SUMO in the Tail Keeps the Acetyl Away
- Discovering a binary CTCF code with a little help from BORIS
- Article Commentary: Stabilizing the Code–-Methods to Preserve RNA Prove Their Worth
- Foreword to the Special Issue for the RINTC (The Implicit Seismic Risk of Code-Conforming Structures) Project
- Commentary: Promoting Health and Well-being in Pediatric Primary Care Settings: Using Health and Behavior Codes at Routine Well-child Visits
Go deeper in Evidence Hub
Evidence Hub adds a study data sheet (design, sample size, evidence level, key numbers), an AI summary and a chat grounded in the paper's text.