Biotecnologia e Biomateriais

Abstrato

RNA-Mediated Crop Improvement

Basel Khraiwesh

Indeed, one of the more recent discoveries in molecularbiology of non-coding RNAs isRNA interference (RNAi). RNAi is a method of blocking gene function by inserting short sequences of ribonucleic acid (RNA) that match part of the target gene’s sequence, thus no proteins are produced. Since Science named it as “Breakthrough of the Year” and Fortune magazine hailed it as “Biotech’s Billion Dollar Breakthrough”. RNAi is a mechanism regulating gene transcript levels by either transcriptional gene silencing (TGS) or by posttranscriptional gene silencing (PTGS), which acts in genome maintenance and the regulation of development [1].Since the discovery of RNAi in Caenorhabditis elegans extensive studies have been performed focusing on the different aspects of RNAi. In particular, the elucidation of the essential components of RNAi pathways has advanced extensively. RNAihas been discovered in a wide range of organisms from plants and fungi to insects and mammals suggesting that it arose early in the evolution of multicellular organisms.