MicroRNAs as fine-tuners of gene regulation in plant-microbe interactions

Plants utilize non-coding RNA-mediated gene regulatory mechanism as one of the effective ways to cope with stress. MicroRNAs (miRNAs) are crucial players of this category that regulate gene expressions at the post-transcriptional level. miRNAs are reported to be involved in different aspects of plant-microbe interactions, starting from regulation of pathogen recognition receptors to fine regulation of defence gene expression, as well as in maintaining symbiosis. In plants, miRNA mediated gene regulation is an active layer in biotic stress responses with a lesser chance of off-target effects. A better understanding of miRNA-mediated gene regulation will have numerous applications from primary gene function study to targeted gene silencing. This article summarizes the current knowledge on miRNAs in plant-microbe interactions, with an emphasis on their utilization as a powerful tool in disease management.