Gene silencing is a natural process which effectively hinders the expression of an identifiable gene. The primary cause of gene silence is the cytoplasmic presence of double-stranded RNA (dsRNA). Depending on the fundamental principles of molecular genetics, there are two types of gene silencing that occur in plants, of which post-transcriptional gene silencing (PTGS), occurs in cytoplasm and degrades or obstructs some genes' mRNA transcripts. RNAi and asRNA are two examples of PTGS methods (Animasaun et al., 2023). Antisense RNA technology is a novel approach to precisely modify or block gene expression in vitro or in vivo. By forming base pair with the sense RNA strand (mRNA), the antisense strand inhibits sense RNA from being translated into a protein. Thus, antisense technology uses complementary nucleic acid sequences, or antisense compounds, to suppress gene expression. Antisense nucleic acid sequences can bind or hybridize to a particular mRNA target to prevent normal gene expression. This may interfere with transcription or translation, which would prevent the information flow from DNA to protein(Crooke et al., 2021).RNAi involves sequence-specific gene regulation by small non-coding RNA (miRNA, siRNA)(Kamthanet al., 2015).One of the short non-coding RNAs, siRNAs are usually 21–25 bp long and are ingested by the cell exogenously through viruses or transposons. Another kind of short non-coding RNA is microRNA (miRNA), which is primarily produced endogenously from the nucleus and has an average length of 22 nucleotides. By targeting mRNA at the post-transcriptional stage and causing cleavage or translational inhibition, RNA interference controls the expression of genes (Mandal et al., 2021).
Gene silencing, Gene knockdown, Anti-sense RNA technology, RNA interference (RNAi), Small interfering RNA, MicroRNAs, Dicer, RISC, Argonaute Protein
Animasaun, D.A., & Lawrence, J.A. 2023. Antisense RNA (as RNA) Technology: The Concept and Applications in Crop Improvement and Sustainable Agriculture. Research Square.
Crooke, S.T., Baker, B.F., Crooke, R.M., & Liang, X.H. 2021. Antisense Technology: An Overview and Prospectus. Nature reviews Drug Discovery, 20(6): 427-453.
Ha, M., & Kim, V.N. 2014. Regulation of microRNA biogenesis. Nature Reviews Molecular Cell Biology, 15(8), 509–524.
Hannon, G.J. 2002. RNA Interference. Nature, 418(6894): 244-251.
Hutvagner, G. 2005. Small RNA Asymmetry in RNAi: Function in RISC Assembly and Gene Regulation. FEBS letters. 579(26): 5850-5857.
Kamthan, A., Chaudhuri, A., Kamthan, M., & Datta, A. 2015. Small RNAs in Plants: Recent Development and Application for Crop Improvement. Frontiers in Plant Science, 6: 208.
Khasa, R., & Kumar, S. 2022. Role of miRNA for Agricultural Crop Improvement.
Kramer, M.G., & Redenbaugh, K. 1994. Commercialization of a Tomato with an Antisense Polygalacturonase Gene: The FLAVR SAVR™ Tomato Story. Euphytica. 79: 293-297.
Mandal, K., Boro, P., & Chattopadhyay, S. 2021. Micro-RNA based Gene Regulation: A Potential way for Crop Improvements. Plant Gene. 27: 100312.
Saurabh, S., Vidyarthi, A.S., & Prasad, D. 2014. RNA interference: concept to reality in crop improvement. Planta. 239: 543-564.
Stowe, E., & Dhingra, A. 2021. Development of the Arctic® Apple. Plant breeding reviews. 44: 273-296.
Tennant, P., Fermin, G., Fitch, M.M., Manshardt, R.M., Slightom, J.L., & Gonsalves, D. 2001. Papaya Ringspot Virus Resistance of Transgenic Rainbow and SunUp is Affected by Gene Dosage, Plant Development and Coat Protein Homology. European Journal of Plant Pathology. 107: 645-653.
Yang, X., & Li, L. 2012. Analyzing the microRNA transcriptome in plants using deep sequencing data. Biology, 1(2): 297-310.
