Multiple Functions of MiRNAs in Brassica napus L.

Simple Summary Changing climatic conditions are posing serious challenges to crop production. In B. napus, the vast amount of transcriptomic data on development and biotic and abiotic stress offers a possibility to exploit the regulatory network of miRNA-mRNA. This review summarizes the advances of miRNA-related regulation under disruptive environmental conditions and shares more about the characteristics of miRNAs for the improvement of favorable traits in B. napus. The worldwide climate changes every year due to global warming, waterlogging, drought, salinity, pests, and pathogens, impeding crop productivity. Brassica napus is one of the most important oil crops in the world, and rapeseed oil is considered one of the most health-beneficial edible vegetable oils. Recently, miRNAs have been found and confirmed to control the expression of targets under disruptive environmental conditions. The mechanism is through the formation of the silencing complex that mediates post-transcriptional gene silencing, which pairs the target mRNA and target cleavage and/or translation inhibition. However, the functional role of miRNAs and targets in B. napus is still not clarified. This review focuses on the current knowledge of miRNAs concerning development regulation and biotic and abiotic stress responses in B. napus. Moreover, more strategies for miRNA manipulation in plants are discussed, along with future perspectives, and the enormous amount of transcriptome data available provides cues for miRNA functions in B. napus. Finally, the construction of the miRNA regulatory network can lead to the significant development of climate change-tolerant B. napus through miRNA manipulation.

Automated summary

This article summarizes the research progress on using the miRNA-mRNA regulatory network to respond to climate change challenges in rapeseed and discusses the functional role of miRNAs in rapeseed as well as strategies for miRNA manipulation in plants. The article states that constructing the miRNA regulatory network can promote the development of climate change-tolerant rapeseed.