Fusarium graminearum microRNA-like RNAs and their interactions with wheat genome: a much-needed study

In India the epidemics of Fusarium hed blight (FHB) on wheat has occurred sporadically under warm and wet weather conditions during anthesis. The disease may cause considerable losses in grain yield and quality. The FHB resistance is quantitatively inherited in limited number of wheat genotypes. Therefore several genes up- or down-regulated in wheat during FHB infection should be investigated for their interactions with the pathogen. The very recently published fully annotated reference genome of wheat in Science may aid this investigation. The present paper highlights the need for identification of microRNA-like RNAs (milRNAs) in F. graminearum. The paper also emphasizes the need for an investigation to study the interaction of F. graminearum milRNAs with recently published reference genome of wheat. Significant progress made in the knowledge of microRNAs (miRNAs), advancements in bioinformatics tools and rich genomic databases can be utilized for this purpose.