title: Small RNAs: a new paradigm in plant-microbe interactions.
abstract: A never-ending arms race drives coevolution between pathogens and hosts. In plants, pathogen attacks invoke multiple layers of host immune responses. Many pathogens deliver effector proteins into host cells to suppress host immunity, and many plants have evolved resistance proteins to recognize effectors and trigger robust resistance. Here, we discuss findings on noncoding small RNAs (sRNAs) from plants and pathogens, which regulate host immunity and pathogen virulence. Recent discoveries have unveiled the role of noncoding sRNAs from eukaryotic pathogens and bacteria in pathogenicity in both plant and animal hosts. The discovery of fungal sRNAs that are delivered into host cells to suppress plant immunity added sRNAs to the list of pathogen effectors. Similar to protein effector genes, many of these sRNAs are generated from transposable element (TE) regions, which are likely to contribute to rapidly evolving virulence and host adaptation. We also discuss RNA silencing that occurs between organisms.
authors.affiliation: Department of Plant Pathology and Microbiology, University of California, Riverside, California 92521; email: hailingj@ucr.edu.
authors.forename: Arne
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Weiberg
authors.forename: Ming
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Wang
authors.forename: Marschal
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Bellinger
authors.forename: Hailing
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Jin
mesh_terms: D001419:Bacteria / Q000235:genetics* / Q000472:pathogenicity; D005658:Fungi / Q000235:genetics* / Q000472:pathogenicity; D010944:Plants / Q000235:genetics* / Q000276:immunology; D012313:RNA / Q000235:genetics*
chemical_list: D012313:RNA
keywords: cross-kingdom RNAi; gene silencing; pathogen effector; small RNA; transposable element