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Post-transcriptional gene silencing in plants by RNA

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Abstract

RNA silencing, which is termed post-transcriptional gene silencing in plants, is an RNA degradation process through sequence-specific nucleotide interactions induced by double-stranded RNA. In plants, RNA silencing not only serves as a component of the defense mechanism, but also participates in the regulation of endogenous gene expression in a variety of developmental processes. This review elaborates the current progress on the understanding of the molecular basis of RNA silencing including a mechanistic link between the regulation of microRNA and RNA silencing. The practical use of RNA silencing as a reverse genetics approach in plant functional genomics is also discussed.

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Abbreviations

dsRNA :

Double-stranded RNA

miRNA :

MicroRNA

miRNP :

MicroRNA-ribonucleoprotein complex

PAZ:

'Piwi/Argonaute/Zwille'

PTGS :

Post-transcriptional gene silencing

RDRP :

RNA-dependent RNA polymerase

RNAi :

RNA interference

RISC :

RNA-induced silencing complex

siRNA :

Short interfering RNA

stRNA :

Short temporal RNA

TGB:

Triple gene block

TGS :

Transcriptional gene silencing

UTR :

Untranslated region

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Acknowledgements

We thank E. Haswell, T. Ito, J.A. Long, F. Wellmer, and Y. Zhao for critical reading of the manuscript. Our apologies to colleagues whose work could not be cited due to space constraints in this review. This work was partly supported by a research grant R-154-000-125-112 to P.P. Kumar and an overseas postdoctoral fellowship to H. Yu from National University of Singapore.

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  1. H. Yu

    Present address: Division of Biology 156-29, California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, California, 91125, USA

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  1. Department of Biological Sciences, Faculty of Science, National University of Singapore, 10 Science Drive 4, 117543, Singapore, Singapore

    H. Yu & P. P. Kumar

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Correspondence to P. P. Kumar.

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Communicated by O.L. Gamborg

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Yu, H., Kumar, P.P. Post-transcriptional gene silencing in plants by RNA. Plant Cell Rep 22, 167–174 (2003). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00299-003-0699-1

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