Fan Luo^{1, 3, 4} , Xiaoli Zhou^{1, 3, 4} , Mengmeng Yin^{1, 3, 4} , Juan Li^{1, 2, 3} , Qian Zhu^{1, 2, 3} , Huirong Dong^{1, 3} , Lijuan Chen^{1, 2, 3} , Dongsun Lee^{1, 2, 3}

1 Rice Research Institute, Yunnan Agricultural University, Kunming, 650201, Yunnan, China
2 The Key Laboratory for Crop Production and Smart Agriculture of Yunnan Province, Yunnan Agricultural University, Kunming, 650201, Yunnan, China
3 College of Agronomy and Biotechnology, Yunnan Agricultural University, Kunming, 650201, Yunnan, China
4 Panxi Crops Research and Utilization Key Laboratory of Sichuan Province, Xichang University, Xichang, 615013, Sichuan, China
Author    Correspondence author
Rice Genomics and Genetics, 2024, Vol. 15, No. 5   
Received: 17 Sep., 2024    Accepted: 17 Oct., 2024    Published: 28 Oct., 2024

This is an open access article published under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

Cold stress is a significant abiotic factor that adversely affects rice (Oryza sativa) growth and productivity. This study investigates the dynamic changes and biological significance of microRNA (miRNA) expression profiles in rice under cold stress. Utilizing high-throughput techniques such as microarrays and stem-loop reverse transcription quantitative PCR (ST-RT qPCR), researchers identified several miRNAs that exhibit differential expression in response to cold stress. Notably, miR1320, miR319, and miR156 were found to play crucial roles in enhancing cold tolerance by targeting specific transcription factors and modulating stress-responsive genes. For instance, miR1320 targets the ERF transcription factor OsERF096, which is involved in jasmonic acid (JA)-mediated signaling pathways, while miR319 targets OsPCF6 and OsTCP21, contributing to the regulation of cold stress-responsive genes such as DREB1A/B/C and TPP1/2. Additionally, miR156 enhances cold tolerance by targeting OsSPL3, which in turn regulates the expression of OsWRKY71 and other stress-related transcription factors. These findings underscore the importance of miRNAs in the complex regulatory networks that govern rice’s response to cold stress, providing valuable insights for developing cold-tolerant rice varieties.

Cold stress; MicroRNA; Rice (Oryza sativa L.); Gene regulation; Abiotic stress tolerance