Abstract
Recent research has revealed the existence of an elegant defence mechanism in plants and lower eukaryotes. The mechanism, known in plants as post-transcriptional gene silencing, works through sequence-specific degradation of RNA. It appears to be directed by double-stranded RNA, associated with the production of short 21-25 nt RNAs, and spread through the plant by a diffusible signal. The short RNAs are implicated as the guides for both a nuclease complex that degrades the mRNA and a methyltransferase complex that methylates the DNA of silenced genes. It has also been suggested that these short RNAs might be the mobile silencing signal, a suggestion that has been challenged recently.
MeSH terms
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Adaptation, Physiological / genetics
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Cysteine Endopeptidases / genetics*
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Cysteine Endopeptidases / metabolism
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DNA Methylation
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DNA, Plant / genetics
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Gene Silencing / physiology*
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Genes, Plant
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Methyltransferases / metabolism*
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Plant Proteins
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Plant Viruses / genetics
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Plants / genetics*
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Plants / metabolism
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Plants, Genetically Modified
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RNA Processing, Post-Transcriptional
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RNA, Double-Stranded / genetics
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RNA, Double-Stranded / metabolism
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RNA, Plant / genetics
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RNA, Plant / metabolism*
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Signal Transduction
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Transcription, Genetic
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Viral Proteins / genetics*
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Viral Proteins / metabolism
Substances
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DNA, Plant
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Plant Proteins
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RNA, Double-Stranded
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RNA, Plant
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Viral Proteins
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Methyltransferases
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Cysteine Endopeptidases
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HC-Pro protein, potyvirus