Vol.:(0123456789) 1 3 Molecular Biology Reports https://doi.org/10.1007/s11033-020-05810-y MINI REVIEW ARTICLE Elucidating micro RNAs role in diferent plant–pathogen interactions Charu Kulshrestha 1  · Hardik Pathak 1  · Deepak Kumar 2  · Saurabh Dave 3  · Jebi Sudan 1 Received: 15 June 2020 / Revised: 30 August 2020 / Accepted: 3 September 2020 © Springer Nature B.V. 2020 Abstract Bacteria, fungi, virus and nematode constitute the primary class of pathogens causing plant diseases. Plant–pathogen inter- actions are crucial for the identifcation of the host and pathogen and further establishments of a network of interaction that can cross regulate the gene expressions in both sides. After infection, the correct identifcation of pathogen through various molecular interactions elicit a defense response against the pathogen by alteration of gene expression by the host. Co-evolution of pathogen gives them the ability to counter the virulence response of the host and pathogen can also modulate the host gene expression pattern to make it more susceptible to the infection. Small non-coding RNA molecules (siRNAs and miRNAs) efciently modulate gene expression at the transcriptional and post-transcriptional level and play a vital role in host defense. The pathogen can also use this double-sided sward in their defense by deregulating the plant immunity via transcriptional control of plant genes utilizing RNA interference or suppressing the host RNA interference response with the help of various RNA silencing suppressor proteins. This mini-review focused on the miRNAs involvement in host defense and how diferent families of these non-coding regulatory RNAs regulate the defense response against the pathogen. Keywords Pathogens · Plant–pathogen interaction · Plant defense · Small RNAs Introduction Plants survival against the pathogen depends upon a wide variety of factors that governs the plant immunity. Over the period of time, plant also evolves to develop intricate mechanisms that recognize the various surface molecular patterns present in the pathogens. These pathogen associated molecular patterns (PAMPs) when recognized by plant cell elicits a strong defense response known as PAMP triggered immunity (PTI). However due to continuous random muta- tions, many plant pathogens have evolved a diverse vari- ety of efector proteins that can inhibit PTI signaling when come in contact with the plant cell [1]. In order to impede with such pathogens, plants have developed another type of immunity known as efector triggered immunity (ETI). This second layer of inducible defense uses resistance pro- teins to counteract with the efectors. The resistance proteins coding genes are being triggered by small RNAs (sRNAs) by their diferential regulation contributing another class of defense mechanism to plants [2]. Small RNAs in plants are able to regulate development, stress tolerance and antiviral defenses [3]. These small RNAs namely microRNAs (miR- NAs) and small interfering RNAs (siRNAs) provide immu- nity to plants against several infections by inducing RNA interference (RNAi) pathways that trigger transcriptional gene silencing. As the small RNAs present in plants contribute to plant immunity, in the same way the pathogen-derived sRNAs regulate the virulence of pathogens. It is remarkable about these small RNAs that their regulation is not limited to the specifc organism in which they are synthesized. If * Jebi Sudan jebiaksh@gmail.com Charu Kulshrestha charukulshrestha1998@gmail.com Hardik Pathak hardikaeshu@gmail.com Deepak Kumar deepakdskumar@gmail.com Saurabh Dave saurabh.dave@jecrcu.edu.in 1 Department of Plant Biotechnology, JECRC University, Jaipur, Rajasthan, India 2 Department of Zoology, University of Rajasthan, Jaipur, Rajasthan, India 3 Department of Chemistry, JECRC University, Jaipur, Rajasthan, India