title: RNAi induced gene silencing in crop improvement.
abstract: The RNA silencing is one of the innovative and efficient molecular biology tools to harness the down-regulation of expression of gene(s) specifically. To accomplish such selective modification of gene expression of a particular trait, homology dependent gene silencing uses a stunning variety of gene silencing viz. co-suppression, post-transcriptional gene silencing, virus-induced gene silencing etc. This family of diverse molecular phenomena has a common exciting feature of gene silencing which is collectively called RNA interference abbreviated to as RNAi. This molecular phenomenon has become a focal point of plant biology and medical research throughout the world. As a result, this technology has turned out to be a powerful tool in understanding the function of individual gene and has ultimately led to the tremendous use in crop improvement. This review article illustrates the application of RNAi in a broad area of crop improvement where this technology has been successfully used. It also provides historical perspective of RNAi discovery and its contemporary phenomena, mechanism of RNAi pathway.
authors.affiliation: Department of Biochemistry, Faculty of Basic Sciences & Humanities, Rajendra Agricultural University, Pusa (Samastipur), Bihar India.
authors.forename: Subodh Kumar
authors.initials: SK
authors.lastname: Sinha
keywords: Crop improvement; Gene silencing; RNAi; RNAi vector