THE IMPACT OF RNAi ON CROP PROTECTION

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By Jonathan Lloyd, PhD, Freelance agricultural consultant, researcher and writer

This piece represents the views of the author and not necessarily the views of KNect365 Life Sciences
or the Crop Innovations and Regulations conference series.

Crop plants are continuously exposed to various
pathogens including bacteria, fungi and viruses resulting in a 20–40% yield loss globally (Borrelli et al., 2018). RNA Interference (RNAi) is an emerging technology which could play a major role in reducing crop losses, and help to meet a growing global demand for food.

RNAi is a method of blocking gene function by inserting short sequences of ribonucleic acid (RNA) that match part of the target gene’s sequence, thus no proteins are produced (ISAAA, 2008). The term RNAi was popularized by Fire and Mello following their Nobel Prize winning work which demonstrated the potent effects of double stranded RNA(dsRNA) in Caenorhabditis elegans (Fire et al., 1998).

This work initiated intense research to understand the mechanisms underlying RNAi and its potential uses. It has been widely used to analyze gene function in various organisms. RNAi is a natural process present in eukaryotic cells for gene regulation and antiviral defense (Cagliari,
2019). Although RNAi was first discovered in worms, related phenomena such as post-transcriptional gene silencing and coat protein mediated protection from viral infection had previously been observed in plants. In plants
RNAi is often achieved through transgenes that produce hairpin RNA.

THE IMPACT OF RNAi ON CROP PROTECTION

By Jonathan Lloyd, PhD, Freelance agricultural consultant, researcher and writer

This piece represents the views of the author and not necessarily the views of KNect365 Life Sciences or the Crop Innovations and Regulations conference series.

This piece represents the views of the author and not necessarily the views of KNect365 Life Sciences
or the Crop Innovations and Regulations conference series.