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Plant Responses and Mechanisms of Tolerance to Cold Stress
Published in Hasanuzzaman Mirza, Nahar Kamrun, Fujita Masayuki, Oku Hirosuke, Tofazzal M. Islam, Approaches for Enhancing Abiotic Stress Tolerance in Plants, 2019
Aruna V. Varanasi, Nicholas E. Korres, Vijay K. Varanasi
RNA-mediated regulation of the COR gene expression occurs through post-transcriptional mechanisms such as alternative splicing, pre-mRNA processing, RNA silencing, and RNA export from the nucleus during cold acclimation (Han et al., 2011). At low temperatures, plants regulate the export of mRNA from the nucleus, selectively translate COR genes, and tend to increase the stability of these selected transcripts (Ambrosone et al., 2012). RNA-binding proteins function as RNA chaperones and stabilize the native conformation of misfolded RNA molecules. Proteins such as glycine-rich protein, GRP7, and RNA helicase LOS4 play an important role in the nuclear mRNA export under cold stress conditions (Gong et al., 2005; Kim et al., 2008). RNA silencing is processed through small non-coding RNAs known as micro-RNAs (miRNAs) and small interfering RNAs (siRNAs), which act as repressors of gene expression (Ghildiyal and Zamore, 2009). These small RNA molecules are suggested to regulate abiotic stress responses in plants. Micro RNAs target mRNAs through imperfect sequence complementation and mediate post-transcriptional gene silencing by the cleavage of specific mRNAs, thereby repressing protein translation (Sunkar et al., 2012). Cold-induced miRNAs have been identified in several plant species, including Arabidopsis (Zhou et al., 2008), poplar (Chen et al., 2012), and rice (Zhang et al., 2009). Alternative splicing of pre-mRNA is another RNA-mediated regulation induced as a stress respo nse in plants. In Arabidopsis, approximately 42% of genes are regulated by alternative splicing (Filichkin et al., 2010), while in rice about 21% of the expressed genes undergo alternative splicing to produce different proteins (Wang and Brendel, 2006). Several genes encoding protein kinases and other transcription factors undergo alternative splicing during abiotic stress responses (Mastrangelo et al., 2012). Alternative splicing of serine/arginine-rich proteins that function in the regulation of mRNA splicing under cold and heat stresses was reported in Arabidopsis (Palusa et al., 2007).
Atomistic to continuum model for studying mechanical properties of RNA nanotubes
Published in Computer Methods in Biomechanics and Biomedical Engineering, 2020
Shyam Badu, Sanjay Prabhakar, Roderick Melnik, Sundeep Singh
Ribonucleic acid (RNA) nanotechnology is based on nanometer-scale RNA architectures consisting of RNA nanoclusters or nanocomplexes (Grabow and Jaeger 2014; Jasinski et al. 2017). This emerging field has attracted immense interest in life sciences and engineering. It should not come as a surprise. Indeed, RNA molecules provide a key to cell regulation and RNA nanoparticles/nanoclusters can be used for gene expression regulation (Jedrzejczyk and Chworos 2019). The RNA-based technology, known as the RNA silencing, can protect the eukaryotic cells against viruses and transposons (e.g. (Yang et al. 2007) and references therein). RNA has both catalytic and genetic functions. It is a stable biopolymer with extraordinary potential as a building block in materials and life sciences. This includes also a series of novel ideas such as its usage for resistive biomolecular memory and tissue engineering, as well as its conjugation to graphene and other nanomaterials with biosensing and many other applications (Li et al. 2015; Jasinski et al. 2017). RNA molecules play a fundamental role in many biological processes, including regulation of gene expression (Ponce-Salvatierra et al. 2019). Nowadays, it is possible to use RNA nanoclusters to modulate immune behaviour (Chandler and Afonin 2019) and to tune the immunogenetic properties of synthetic RNA constructs for in vivo applications (Jasinski et al. 2017). The increasingly high interest to RNA-based technologies has been further amplified by several recent developments: (a) the discovery of hierarchical nanomaterials and nanostructures via biomolecular self assembly and bio-inspiration and their new applications, not only in biomedicine, but also in energy and environmental applications (Gong et al. 2019), as well as (b) rapid advances in synthetic biology and nanobiotechnology with their constructions of various synthetic RNA nanoparticles and nanocomplexes with different functionalities and application areas (Ishikawa et al. 2013; Jedrzejczyk et al. 2017). RNA nanoclusters have tremendous potential for applications in nanobiomedicine, treatment of cancer cells and of other diseases due to their biological compatibility to the human beings (Shu et al. 2014; Jasinski et al. 2017). Indeed, since protein-free RNA molecules induce a minimal immune response, RNA nanoparticles and nanoclusters can be potentially used in long-term treatments of chronic diseases such as hepatitis B or AIDS (Yingling and Shapiro 2007).