RNAs - a New Frontier in Crop Protection

Overview

Journal Curr Opin Biotechnol

Publisher Elsevier

Specialty Biotechnology

Date 2021 Jul 3

PMID 34217122

Citations 34

Authors

Dongdong Niu

Rachael Hamby

Jonatan Nino Sanchez

Qiang Cai

Qin Yan

Hailing Jin

Affiliations

Soon will be listed here.

Abstract

Small RNA (sRNA)-mediated RNA interference (RNAi) is a regulatory mechanism conserved in almost all eukaryotes. sRNAs play a critical role in host pathogen interactions either endogenously or by traveling between the interacting organisms and inducing 'cross-Kingdom RNAi' in the counterparty. Cross-kingdom RNAi is the mechanistic basis of host-induced gene silencing (HIGS), which relies on genetically expressing pathogen-gene targeting RNAs in crops, and has been successfully utilized against both microbial pathogens and pests. HIGS is limited by the need to produce genetically engineered crops. Recent studies have demonstrated that double-stranded RNAs and sRNAs can be efficiently taken up by many fungal pathogens, and induce gene silencing in fungal cells. This mechanism, termed 'environmental RNAi', allows direct application of pathogen-gene targeting RNAs onto crops to silence fungal virulence-related genes for plant protection. In this review, we will focus on how we can leverage cross-kingdom RNAi and environmental RNAi for crop disease control.

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