A ribose world: Current status and future challenges of plant RNA biology

Abstract

Elucidation of the cellular functions of RNAs represents one of the most exciting research areas in modern life sciences. RNAs play crucial roles in plant biology, including developmental regulation and environmental responses. Advances in sequencing technologies have benefitted the genome-wide analysis of RNA modifications, the resolution of RNA secondary structures, the mapping of epigenetic modifications, the identification of RNA-edited sequences, and the discovery of novel RNA classes. These advances have allowed impressive progress in our understanding of cellular roles of RNAs, but have also given rise to new questions (Manavella et al., 2023). In this special issue, we have collected expert contributions that provide updates on different aspects of plant RNA biology, thereby highlighting the most intriguing open questions and the future direction of this exciting field of research.