LAUSR

Abstract Plants being sessile always face a plethora of biotic and abiotic stresses. These stresses severely damage basic physiological functions in crop plants affecting their productivity and leading to death. It has been found that numerous miRNAs and lncRNAs play essential roles in the plant defense mechanism under stress conditions. Recent studies based on various bioinformatic tools have proven their regulatory roles in stress management. In the present article we reviewed all the available literature on the roles of miRNAs and lncRNAs and their interaction to mitigate different types of biotic and abiotic stresses. Literature based on several important crops has been surveyed and a complementarity between different miRNAs and lncRNAs has been assessed. At the end of the review we have summarized features of several bioinformatics tools which have been used to study the interactions of miRNAs and lncRNAs in recent past. Our review will be helpful for future plant scientists to decipher the exact role of these RNAs in stress tolerance.