RNAi-Based Gene Silencing in Sugarcane for Production of Biofuel.

RNA interference (RNAi) is an innate cellular mechanism triggered by a double-stranded RNA (dsRNA) molecule causing selective inhibition of gene expression. Here, we demonstrated the RNAi technology for gene silencing in sugarcane for biofuel production. This chapter describes an efficient model system that established to target the caffeic acid O-methyltransferase (COMT) gene and the RNAi construct is designed and delivered through Agrobacterium mediated stable sugarcane transformation. Also, the approach for an analysis of resulting putative transgenic plants for a targeted RNAi mediated gene silencing is described.