Recent progress in the development of RNA interference for plant parasitic nematodes.
SUMMARY RNA interference (RNAi), first described for Caenorhabditis elegans, has emerged as a powerful gene silencing tool for investigating gene function in a range of organisms. Recent studies have described its application to plant parasitic nematodes. Genes expressed in a range of cell types are silenced when preparasitic juvenile nematodes take up double-stranded (ds)RNA that elicits a systemic RNAi response. Important developments over the last year have shown that in planta expression of a dsRNA targeting a nematode gene can successfully induce silencing in parasitizing nematodes. When the targeted gene has an essential function, a resistance effect is observed paving the way for the potential use of RNAi technology to control plant parasitic nematodes.
Lilley
Catherine J
CJ
Centre for Plant Sciences, University of Leeds, Leeds LS2 9JT, UK.
Bakhetia
Manjula
M
Charlton
Wayne L
WL
Urwin
Peter E
PE