RNAi: Role in Crop Improvement against Plant Pathogens

Abstract

RNA interference (RNAi) is an important regulatory approach in functional genomics that has major impact on improvement of crop which allows down-regulation in gene expression. It regulates gene expression by either suppressing transcription or by activating a sequence specific RNA degradation process called post transcriptional gene silencing. RNAi mechanism helps in identification and functional evaluation of thousand of genes within any genome that is responsible for crop improvement. This prognostic approach also reduces the expression of any particular gene through short interfering RNA molecules in any target cell and moreover to appraise the changes that occur in signalling pathways. Recently, RNAi has become a powerful and reliable technique to inhibit the expression of targeted genes and also helps to determine gene loss of function phenotype which leads to gene functional analysis. Pathogens can cause huge damage to crop yield that can have a negative impact on economy and also they are threat to wipe out the entire plant species. This approach has opened new prospects in the development of eco-friendly techniques for plant improvement as specific genes are suppressed which cause stress and expression of novel genes for disease resistance. With the revolution in genetic engineering, biotechnologists were enthusiastic to employ this technology for improved crop quality and its nutritional status. RNAi being a novel approach has great potential to modify the gene expression in plants for better quality traits and nutritional improvement in different crops.