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RNAi induced gene silencing in crop improvement

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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.

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Acknowledgements

I thank Mr. A.A. Daudi for critical reading of the manuscript and valuable suggestions. I would also like to thank anonymous reviewers for their critical comments on text which were very helpful.

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  1. Department of Biochemistry, Faculty of Basic Sciences & Humanities, Rajendra Agricultural University, Pusa (Samastipur), Bihar, India

    Subodh Kumar Sinha

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Sinha, S.K. RNAi induced gene silencing in crop improvement. Physiol Mol Biol Plants 16, 321–332 (2010). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12298-010-0036-4

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