Protecting plants from pathogens without genetically modifying crops? A team of Chinese researchers suggests an alternative strategy in the latest issue of Plant Communications.
The biotechnological methods that currently exist to create crops that are resistant to pests and diseases are limited in their applicability, mainly because they are based on transgenics or surface application (which does not allow access to the inner areas of the plant). A scientists' proposal involves the use of small RNA produced by beneficial microbes for crop protection, guaranteeing the stability and delivery of these RNAs to the appropriate place and time.
The strategy, which eliminates “the need for genetic modification of cultures”, assumes that small RNAs (sRNAs) can be transferred from the microbiome to the host and pathogen, or between elements of the microbiome.
sRNAs are the crucial molecular devices of so-called gene silencing via RNA interference, a mechanism that regulates gene expression at both the transcriptional and post-transcriptional levels.
Title of original article: Trans-kingdom RNAs and their fates in recipient cells: advances, utilization, and perspectives
doi.org/10.1016/j.xplc.2021.100167
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