Abstract: Drought is a common and recurring climate feature that seriously affects crop production. microRNAs (miRNAs) are a class of small molecular non-coding RNAs with the length of 18~24 nt. Transcribed miRNAs regulate gene expression and participate in plant growth and development. This paper focused on the discovery, synthesis and mechanism of miRNAs, the species and target genes of miRNAs in response to drought stress, and the mechanism of miRNAs in response to drought stress. It was pointed out that microRNAs were species-dependent and tissue-specific in plant response to drought stress, and were affected by drought stress conditions. It was also found that the current plant microRNAs in drought stress response of the study was the mechanism of action of miRNAs in drought stress and its target gene regulatory network was unclear. The research prospects for the future, such as exploring miRNAs regulate gene regulation of cis component characteristics, and the target genes of plant drought stress response function and network of the interaction between the key factors, and the construction of plant drought resistance microRNAs repository was discussed, in order to promote the application of miRNAs in  plant resistance to drought stress.

Key words: miRNAs, drought stress, target gene, response mechanism

摘要： 干旱是常见且反复出现的气候特征，严重影响农作物生产。microRNAs（miRNAs）是一类长度为18~24 nt的小分子非编码RNA，转录后的miRNAs可调节基因表达，参与植物生长发育过程。从miRNAs的发现、合成及作用机制,干旱胁迫响应miRNAs的种类及其靶基因、miRNAs介导干旱胁迫的响应机制等方面进行了综述，指出miRNAs在植物响应干旱胁迫过程中存在物种依赖性和组织特异性，且受干旱胁迫条件的影响。同时发现，目前植物miRNAs参与干旱胁迫响应的作用机制及其靶基因调控网络尚不清楚。对未来的研究前景如探究miRNAs调控基因中的顺式调控元件的特征、探索靶基因功能与植物干旱胁迫应答网络关键因子间的相互作用、植物抗旱miRNAs资源库的构建等进行了展望，以期为推动miRNAs在植物抗干旱胁迫中的应用提供参考。

关键词: miRNAs, 干旱胁迫, 靶基因, 响应机制