Rice Genomics and Genetics 2025, Vol.16, No.4, 211-218 http://cropscipublisher.com/index.php/rgg 215 development time, hormone regulation processes, and may also affect flowering time. The dual-luciferase reporter gene assay demonstrated that some lncrnas could regulate hormone-related pathways by binding to mirnas, thereby affecting gene expression related to reproductive development (Wang et al., 2021). 5.3 lncRNAs associated with environmental adaptation in flowering time regulation lncRNA also plays a role in the environmental adaptation of plants, especially under abiotic stress. For instance, in the research of deep rice, scientists have discovered that some lncrnas act as ETMs of stress-responsive mirnas, forming regulatory modules that control gene expression during stem elongation in flood environments. These lncRNA-miRNA-mRNA networks are related to the ability of plants to adjust flowering and growth in difficult environments, and also illustrate the role of lncrnas in combining environmental signals with developmental timing (Panda et al., 2022). 6 Application Potential of lncRNA Research in Rice Molecular Breeding 6.1 Novel strategies for flowering time regulation based on lncRNAs Recent studies have shown that lncRNA can serve as a tool for precisely regulating the flowering time of rice and increasing yield. For instance, overexpression of lncRNA LAIR can not only increase rice yield, but also enhance the activity of nearby LRKgene clusters through epigenetic modifications. At the LRK1 gene locus, the levels of H3K4me3 and H4K16ac have both significantly increased. This indicates that regulating lncRNA can directly affect important agronomic traits, providing a new idea for optimizing flowering time and yield in molecular breeding (Wang et al., 2018; 2024). 6.2 Prospects for combining lncRNAs with marker-assisted breeding lncRNA has multiple functions and precise regulation, and thus is a potential candidate for marker-assisted selection (MAS). The development of high-throughput sequencing and bioinformatics enables us to identify lncRNA variants and isomers related to yield, stress resistance and growth rhythm. For instance, alternative splicing of LAIR can produce various isomers, which can fine-tune the expression and yield traits of LRK1 and are relatively sensitive to abiotic stress. If combined with traditional genetic markers, such lncRNA markers can improve the accuracy and efficiency of breeding for complex traits, including flowering time (Gao et al., 2020). 6.3 Utilization of lncRNA regulation under changing environmental conditions lncRNA can also help rice cope with environmental stresses such as drought and pests by regulating hormone signals, stress response gene expression and ceRNA networks. For instance, some lncrnas act as competitive endogenous Rnas (cernas), regulating drought resistance and pest resistance, which provides new resources for breeding stress-resistant varieties (Yang et al., 2022; Wu et al., 2023). Lncrnas like LAIR undergo alternative splicing under adverse conditions, thereby dynamically regulating gene expression. This characteristic contributes to phenotypic plasticity and environmental adaptability in breeding projects (Singh et al., 2017; Wang et al., 2024). 7 Conclusions and Perspectives In the study of the regulation of rice flowering time, scientists have made many new discoveries about the role of lncRNA. Key lncrnas like RIFLA and LAIR have been demonstrated to influence flowering by interacting with transcription factors, chromatin modification factors, and other regulatory Rnas. These changes will be directly related to agronomic traits such as yield and stress resistance. Whole-genome studies have also identified tens of thousands of lncrnas, which change dynamically at different developmental stages and under different environmental conditions. However, compared with animal research, the study of plant lncrnas is not yet in-depth enough, and the speed of functional analysis lags behind the speed of discovery. The variety of lncrnas, their low expression levels, and their obvious tissue specificity all make functional annotation very difficult. There are still many technical challenges in the functional research of rice lncRNA. They often undergo alternative splicing, which can produce multiple different subtypes, making it complicated to determine their specific functions. The low sequence conservation and the lack of reliable prediction models make the localization
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