| Literature DB >> 25722411 |
Jiang Zhang1, Sher Afzal Khan2, Claudia Hasse1, Stephanie Ruf1, David G Heckel2, Ralph Bock3.
Abstract
Double-stranded RNAs (dsRNAs) targeted against essential genes can trigger a lethal RNA interference (RNAi) response in insect pests. The application of this concept in plant protection is hampered by the presence of an endogenous plant RNAi pathway that processes dsRNAs into short interfering RNAs. We found that long dsRNAs can be stably produced in chloroplasts, a cellular compartment that appears to lack an RNAi machinery. When expressed from the chloroplast genome, dsRNAs accumulated to as much as 0.4% of the total cellular RNA. Transplastomic potato plants producing dsRNAs targeted against the β-actin gene of the Colorado potato beetle, a notorious agricultural pest, were protected from herbivory and were lethal to its larvae. Thus, chloroplast expression of long dsRNAs can provide crop protection without chemical pesticides.Entities:
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Year: 2015 PMID： 25722411 DOI： 10.1126/science.1261680
Source DB: PubMed Journal: Science ISSN： 0036-8075 Impact factor: 47.728