4.2 CRIR1 is a novel lncRNA regulating plant tolerance to
cold stress
Plant lncRNAs are expected to play important roles in response to
environmental conditions, and thousands of lncRNAs have been identified
in various plant species (Li, Eichten, Shimizu, Petsch, Yeh, Wu,
Chettoor, Givan, Cole, Fowler, Evans, Scanlon, Yu, Schnable, Timmermans,
Springer & Muehlbauer, 2014, Wang, Chung, Liu, Jang, Kean, Xu & Chua,
2014, Xiao, Yuan, Guo, Hou, Yin, Zhang & Li, 2015, Xin, Wang, Yao,
Song, Hu, Qin, Xie, Peng, Ni & Sun, 2011, Zhang, Han, Guo, Liu, Zheng,
Wu & Jin, 2014). Besides, there has been a rapid increase in the number
of well-studied lncRNAs involved in abiotic stresses response, such asSVALKA (Kindgren, Ard, Ivanov & Marquardt, 2018), DRIR(Qin et al., 2017), and Cis-NATZmNAC48 (Mao et
al., 2021). However, for revealing
the functions of plant lncRNA in cold stress response is still lagging
because most plant lncRNAs are expressed at low levels and are not
evolutionarily conserved across species. In the present study,
an intergenic lncRNA, CRIR1 ,
was identified, whose expression was significantly induced by cold
stress. Compared with WT, overexpression of CRIR1 in cassava
could significantly accumulate high leve of proline, thus leading to
enhanced survival rates under cold-treated conditions. The cellular
morphological characteristics suggested that the expression ofCRIR1 can protect the cellular membrane systems from low
temperatures. The discovery of CRIR1 provides a new avenue to
explore a previously unknown aspect of plant cold stress response.