title: Recent progress in the development of RNA interference for plant parasitic nematodes.
abstract: 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.
authors.affiliation: Centre for Plant Sciences, University of Leeds, Leeds LS2 9JT, UK.
authors.forename: Catherine J
authors.initials: CJ
authors.lastname: Lilley
authors.forename: Manjula
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Bakhetia
authors.forename: Wayne L
authors.initials: WL
authors.lastname: Charlton
authors.forename: Peter E
authors.initials: PE
authors.lastname: Urwin