Guo Qigao, Liu Qing, Smith Neil A, Liang Guolu, Wang Ming-Bo
College of Horticulture & Landscape Architecture, Southwest University, Chongqing, 400716, China.
Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation Agriculture (CSIRO), ACT 2601, Australia.
Curr Genomics. 2016 Dec;17(6):476-489. doi: 10.2174/1389202917666160520103117.
Understanding the fundamental nature of a molecular process or a biological pathway is often a catalyst for the development of new technologies in biology. Indeed, studies from late 1990s to early 2000s have uncovered multiple overlapping but functionally distinct RNA silencing pathways in plants, including the posttranscriptional microRNA and small interfering RNA pathways and the transcriptional RNA-directed DNA methylation pathway. These findings have in turn been exploited for developing artificial RNA silencing technologies such as hairpin RNA, artificial microRNA, intrinsic direct repeat, 3' UTR inverted repeat, artificial trans-acting siRNA, and virus-induced gene silencing technologies. Some of these RNA silencing technologies, such as the hairpin RNA technology, have already been widely used for genetic improvement of crop plants in agriculture. For horticultural plants, RNA silencing technologies have been used to increase disease and pest resistance, alter plant architecture and flowering time, improve commercial traits of fruits and flowers, enhance nutritional values, remove toxic compounds and allergens, and develop high-value industrial products. In this article we aim to provide an overview of the RNA silencing pathways in plants, summarize the existing RNA silencing technologies, and review the current progress in applying these technologies for the improvement of agricultural crops particularly horticultural crops.
理解分子过程或生物途径的基本性质往往是生物学新技术发展的催化剂。事实上，从20世纪90年代末到21世纪初的研究发现，植物中存在多种相互重叠但功能不同的RNA沉默途径，包括转录后微小RNA和小干扰RNA途径以及转录RNA指导的DNA甲基化途径。这些发现反过来又被用于开发人工RNA沉默技术，如发夹RNA、人工微小RNA、内含子直接重复序列、3'非翻译区反向重复序列、人工反式作用小干扰RNA和病毒诱导的基因沉默技术。其中一些RNA沉默技术，如发夹RNA技术，已经在农业中广泛用于作物的遗传改良。对于园艺植物，RNA沉默技术已被用于增强抗病虫能力、改变植物结构和开花时间、改善果实和花卉的商业性状、提高营养价值、去除有毒化合物和过敏原，以及开发高价值工业产品。在本文中，我们旨在概述植物中的RNA沉默途径，总结现有的RNA沉默技术，并综述将这些技术应用于农作物特别是园艺作物改良的当前进展。
