Function and regulation of plant ARGONAUTE proteins in response to environmental challenges: a review
Uroosa Zaheer,
Faisal Munir,
Yussuf Mohamed Salum,
Weiyi He
Affiliations
Uroosa Zaheer
Plant Protection, State Key Laboratory for Ecological Pest Control of Fujian and Taiwan Crops, Institute of Applied Ecology, Fujian Agriculture and Forestry University, Fuzhou, Fujian, China
Faisal Munir
Plant Protection, State Key Laboratory for Ecological Pest Control of Fujian and Taiwan Crops, Institute of Applied Ecology, Fujian Agriculture and Forestry University, Fuzhou, Fujian, China
Yussuf Mohamed Salum
Plant Protection, State Key Laboratory for Ecological Pest Control of Fujian and Taiwan Crops, Institute of Applied Ecology, Fujian Agriculture and Forestry University, Fuzhou, Fujian, China
Weiyi He
Plant Protection, State Key Laboratory for Ecological Pest Control of Fujian and Taiwan Crops, Institute of Applied Ecology, Fujian Agriculture and Forestry University, Fuzhou, Fujian, China
Environmental stresses diversely affect multiple processes related to the growth, development, and yield of many crops worldwide. In response, plants have developed numerous sophisticated defense mechanisms at the cellular and subcellular levels to react and adapt to biotic and abiotic stressors. RNA silencing, which is an innate immune mechanism, mediates sequence-specific gene expression regulation in higher eukaryotes. ARGONAUTE (AGO) proteins are essential components of the RNA-induced silencing complex (RISC). They bind to small noncoding RNAs (sRNAs) and target complementary RNAs, causing translational repression or triggering endonucleolytic cleavage pathways. In this review, we aim to illustrate the recently published molecular functions, regulatory mechanisms, and biological roles of AGO family proteins in model plants and cash crops, especially in the defense against diverse biotic and abiotic stresses, which could be helpful in crop improvement and stress tolerance in various plants.
