Alternative Splicing for Improving Abiotic Stress Tolerance and Agronomic Traits in Crop Plants

摘要

Most eukaryotic genes undergo various post-transcriptional processing events before being translated into proteins. Alternative splicing (AS) is one such event and is an essential mechanism in post-transcriptional gene regulation that allows multiple mRNA variants to be expressed from a single pre-mRNA, thereby expending the functional capacity of a gene as well as the organismal complexity. With the advancement of next-generation sequencing technologies, extensive transcriptomic resources in plant species have determined crucial roles of AS in the regulation of developmental processes and adaption to environmental stresses. We review here recent studies of AS events and splicing factors that specifically affect abiotic-stress tolerance in crop plants, including other agricultural traits. Understanding how alternative splicing modulates plant development and abiotic-stress responses may provide new insights for improving the environmental fitness and productivity of crop plants.