RNAi induced gene silencing in crop improvement

Abstract

The RNA silencing is one of the innovative and efficient molecular biology tools to harness the downregulation of expression of gene(s) specifically. To accomplish such selective modification of gene expression of a particular trait, homology dependent gene silencing uses a stunning variety of gene silencing viz. co-suppression, posttranscriptional gene silencing, virus-induced gene silencing etc. This family of diverse molecular phenomena has a common exciting feature of gene silencing which is collectively called RNA interference abbreviated to as RNAi. This molecular phenomenon has become a focal point of plant biology and medical research throughout the world. As a result, this technology has turned out to be a powerful tool in understanding the function of individual gene and has ultimately led to the tremendous use in crop improvement. This review article illustrates the application of RNAi in a broad area of crop improvement where this technology has been successfully used. It also provides historical perspective of RNAi discovery and its contemporary phenomena, mechanism of RNAi pathway.