miRNA NARZĘDZIEM DO OPTYMALIZACJI PLONOWANIA ROŚLIN UPRAWNYCH

The growing global food demand requires the development of new strategies for improvement of cultivated plants in order to increase crop yield and quality. Some promising approaches to solving this problem are based on the application of the ever-expanding knowledge about miRNAs, a class of endogenous small RNA molecules that negatively regulate gene expression at the transcriptional and post-transcriptional level. The emerging technologies are based on genetic manipulations leading to: changes in miRNA expression, creation of an artificial miRNA (amiRNA) or modifications of their target genes conferring loss of sensitivity to miRNA. Among many physiological processes through which crop yield can be influenced, the following deserve particular attention: regulation of juvenile-to-adult and adult-to-generative phase transitions, shaping plant architecture (tillering), fruit ripening, parthenocarpy induction, reactions to biotic and abiotic stresses.