Small RNAs Add Zing to the Zig-Zag-Zig Model of Plant Defenses

Plant small RNAs play important roles in transcriptional and posttranscriptional regulation, with ongoing work demonstrating their functions in diverse pathways. Their roles in defense responses are a topic of active investigation, particularly the rich set of micro (mi)RNAs that target disease resistance genes such as nucleotide binding/leucine-rich repeat (NB-LRR) genes. The miRNA-NB-LRR interactions result in the production of phased, secondary small interfering (phasi)RNAs, and phasiRNAs function in both cis and trans to propagate negative regulatory effects across additional members of the target gene family. Yet, while phasiRNAs have the capacity to trigger targeted decay of specific targets, both in cis and trans, their functional relevance in NB-LRR regulation remains largely a matter of speculation.