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Small RNAs – The Big Players in Developing Salt-Resistant Plants

development of stress-resistant crops. The design and engineering of siRNA

carriers in plants have gained significant momentum in the recent era, as a

result of the accumulation of predictable and promising molecular targets.

Due to the continuous efforts of researchers, a large number of siRNAs have

been discovered and many more will be identified in the near future by using

stress treated plant samples. Arabidopsis thaliana the genetic model plant is

readily responsive to molecular modification, thereby provide plant biology

researchers with an outstanding experimental system to corroborate which

introduced molecular modifications mediate the expression of abiotic stress

tolerance phenotypes (Pegler et al., 2019). Intracellular RNA silencing tech­

nique also provide some evidence of sRNA mediated transfer of silencing

state between plant cells (Voinnet & Baulcombe, 1997; Voinnet et al., 1998).

The signals of gene silencing in plants can move from one cell to the adjacent

cells through plasmodesmata whereas the signal moves through the vascular

system for a greater distance (Hamilton et al., 2002).

9.7 COMPUTATIONAL TOOLS, TECHNIQUES, AND DATABASE

AVAILABLE FOR SRNA AND ITS TARGET PREDICTION

In this age, computational techniques have integrated with all fields of biolog­

ical sciences and are commonly known as Computational Biology. By using

DNAs, RNAs, and Proteins, many cellular, biochemical, and physiological

phenomenon is clearly explained. The research field of Molecular Biology

has experienced a noticeable shift in its philosophy in recent times mostly

because of the growing evidence of gene regulation by sRNA molecules

in both plants and animals. Researchers of different corners of the earth

working on plants and animals have greatly benefitted from the strategy of

high-throughput sequencing technology and the progressive advancement

of this strategy provide an unprecedented level of sRNA profiling which

seems to have arrived at a plateau from which researchers are capable to

characterize these molecules mechanistically and/or functionally (Park &

Shin, 2014). Due to such an advantage, a huge number of sRNAs, especially

miRNAs have been identified in many plants and many of them are unique

and non-conserved (Cuperus et al., 2011; Fahlgren et al., 2007). With this

study, some of the researchers have set their attention to highly conserved

miRNAs, which are associated with fundamental cellular events and plant

evolution (Willmann & Poethig, 2007). Extensive research by using this

technology researchers have uncovered the fact that conserved miRNAs