title: Post-transcriptional gene silencing in plants: a double-edged sword.
abstract: In plants, post-transcriptional gene silencing (PTGS) protects the genome from foreign genes and restricts the expression of certain endogenous genes for proper development. Here, we review the recent progress about how the unwanted PTGS is avoided in plants. As a decision-making step of PTGS, aberrant transcripts from most endogenous coding genes are strictly sorted to the bidirectional RNA decay pathways in cytoplasm but not to the short interference RNA (siRNA)-mediated PTGS, with the exception of a few development-relevant endogenous siRNA-producing genes. We also discuss a finely balanced PTGS threshold model that plants fully take advantage of the power of PTGS without self-harm.
authors.affiliation: State Key Laboratory of Protein and Plant Gene Research, College of Life Sciences, Peking University, Beijing, 100871, China.
authors.forename: Xinyan
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Zhang
authors.affiliation: State Key Laboratory of Protein and Plant Gene Research, College of Life Sciences, Peking University, Beijing, 100871, China.
authors.forename: Ying
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Zhu
authors.affiliation: State Key Laboratory of Protein and Plant Gene Research, College of Life Sciences, Peking University, Beijing, 100871, China.
authors.forename: Huihui
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Wu
authors.affiliation: State Key Laboratory of Protein and Plant Gene Research, College of Life Sciences, Peking University, Beijing, 100871, China. hongweig@pku.edu.cn.|Peking-Tsinghua Center for Life Sciences, Peking University, Beijing, 100871, China. hongweig@pku.edu.cn.
authors.forename: Hongwei
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Guo
mesh_terms: D003593:Cytoplasm / Q000378:metabolism; D018506:Gene Expression Regulation, Plant; D020868:Gene Silencing; D010944:Plants / Q000235:genetics*; D034622:RNA Interference / Q000502:physiology*; D020871:RNA Stability; D018749:RNA, Plant / Q000235:genetics; D034741:RNA, Small Interfering / Q000378:metabolism
chemical_list: D018749:RNA, Plant; D034741:RNA, Small Interfering
keywords: RNA decay; coding-transcript-derived siRNA; post-transcriptional gene silencing; short interference RNA