Since the discovery of RNA interference (RNAi), scientists have made significant progress
towards the development of this unique technology for crop protection. The RNAi …

Heterosis, also known as hybrid vigour, is widespread in plants and animals, but the
molecular bases for this phenomenon remain elusive. Recent studies in hybrids and …

Delivery of biomolecules to plants relies on Agrobacterium infection or biolistic particle
delivery, the former of which is amenable only to DNA delivery. The difficulty in delivering …

Plants seem to take up exogenous RNA that was artificially designed to target specific
genes, followed by activation of the RNA interference (RNAi) machinery. It is, however, not …

Small-RNA-guided gene regulation is a recurring theme in biology. Animal germ cells are
characterized by an intriguing small-RNA-mediated gene-silencing mechanism known as …

RNA interference (RNAi) is being developed and exploited to improve plants by modifying
endogenous gene expression as well as to target pest and pathogen genes both within …

In all eukaryotes, nuclear DNA-dependent RNA polymerases I, II and III synthesize the
myriad RNAs that are essential for life. Remarkably, plants have evolved two additional …

Virus-induced gene silencing (VIGS) is an efficient tool for gene function studies. It has been
used to perform both forward and reverse genetics to identify plant genes involved in several …

The improvement of woody fruit species by traditional plant breeding techniques has several
limitations mainly caused by their high degree of heterozygosity, the length of their juvenile …

Plants have evolved dynamic and complex networks of cell-to-cell communication to
coordinate and adapt their growth and development to a variety of environmental changes …