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Abstract

MicroRNAs (miRNAs) are short non-coding RNAs that regulate gene expression post-transcriptionally. In addition to their well established role in plant development, miRNAs are also emerging as important players in the response of plants to stress. Stress conditions are often accompanied by an energy deficit due to a decrease in the rates of photosynthesis and/or respiration. This energy deficit triggers a vast transcriptional reprogramming that ultimately shuts down energy-consuming biosynthetic processes and turns on energy-producing catabolic processes, such as autophagy. Some of the mRNAs that are repressed in the stress-induced transcriptome are also targets of miRNAs. Moreover, their repression in response to energy deficiency is compromised in mutants deficient in miRNA biogenesis. This indicates that miRNAs are partly responsible for the repression of gene expression by stress. We will present the current work of our laboratory aimed at unraveling the specific level(s) at which the stress-induced energy deficit regulates this miRNA effect.