Post-transcriptional Gene Silencing In Plants Research Articles

Post-transcriptional gene silencing in plants

Overexpression of chimeric transgenes in plants can trigger post-transcriptional gene silencing that is dependent on epigenetic information and physiological conditions. The current view is that unproductive RNA serves as a crucial signal for gene silencing, although direct evidence is lacking for this theory. A signalling cascade then leads to strongly enhanced turnover of all RNAs that share a critical degree of sequence similarity. The molecular details of the mechanism are, however, insufficiently understood to explain the phenomenon completely and to comprehend its biological significance.

Ectopic pairing of homologous DNA and post-transcriptional gene silencing in transgenic plants

Recent studies indicate that co-suppression and other types of post-transcriptional gene silencing in plants are initiated by homology-dependent pairing of transgene sequences. Once initiated, the silencing mechanism acts in the cytoplasm to prevent accumulation of all RNAs with homology to the transgene.