title: The role of microRNAs in copper and cadmium homeostasis.
abstract: Essential heavy metals (e.g., copper) and non-essential metals (e.g., cadmium) are both toxic to plants at high concentrations. Recently, microRNAs (miRNAs) have emerged as important modulators of plants adaptive response to heavy metal stress. Plant miRNAs negatively regulate target mRNAs by post-transcriptional cleavage. miR398 regulates copper homeostasis via down-regulating the expression of Cu,Zn-superoxide dismutase (CSD), a scavenger of superoxide radicals. miR393 and miR171 play an important role in cadmium stress mediation. This review focuses on the recent advance in the involvement of miRNAs in copper and cadmium stress regulatory networks in plants.
authors.affiliation: State Key Laboratory of Plant Physiology and Biochemistry, College of Life Sciences, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou 310029, China.
authors.forename: Yan-Fei
authors.initials: YF
authors.lastname: Ding
authors.forename: Cheng
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Zhu
mesh_terms: D002104:Cadmium / Q000378:metabolism* / Q000633:toxicity; D003300:Copper / Q000378:metabolism* / Q000633:toxicity; D018506:Gene Expression Regulation, Plant; D006706:Homeostasis / Q000235:genetics; D035683:MicroRNAs / Q000502:physiology*; D010944:Plants / Q000187:drug effects / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism*; D018749:RNA, Plant / Q000502:physiology*
chemical_list: D035683:MicroRNAs; D018749:RNA, Plant; D002104:Cadmium; D003300:Copper