Superstar microRNA, miR156, involved in plant biological processes and stress response: A review

Plant miRNAs (microRNAs) are a class of endogenous non-coding small RNA molecules, which play important roles in various biological processes and stress response by regulating the expression of targeted genes through mRNA cleavage or translational inhibition at a post-transcriptional level. Among them, miR156 is one of the most abundant and highly conserved members in plants, which has attracted more attentions by plant scientists in recent years. Studies showed that miR156 involved in various biological processes, especially in plant vegetative growth, stage transition, reproductive growth, biotic and abiotic stresses etc. The exploration of its specific regulatory mechanism will be the hotspot of future research. However, the roles and regulatory mechanisms of miR156 has not been systematically reviewed and how to elucidate its biological mechanism need to be addressed. Thus, reviewing the function of miR156 involved in plant biological processes and stress response could provide references for its regulatory mechanism of plant miR156 in the future study.