RNA interference (RNAi), a gene-silencing mechanism that involves providing double-stranded RNA molecules that match a specific target gene sequence, is now widely used in functional genetic studies. The potential application of RNAi-mediated control of agricultural insect pests has rapidly become evident. The production of transgenic plants expressing dsRNA molecules that target essential inse...

In a recent issue of Cell, four papers described regulatory interactions among messenger RNAs (mRNAs) that share target sequences for the same microRNAs (miRNAs) (Cesana et al., 2011; Karreth et al., 2011; Sumazin et al., 2011; Tay et al., 2011). The authors state that these mRNAs, dubbed ‘‘competing endogenous RNAs (ceRNAs),’’ define a new layer of regulation of miRNA activity that has only re...

The CRISPR/Cas9 system has been demonstrated to efficiently induce targeted gene editing in a variety of organisms including plants. Recent work showed that CRISPR/Cas9-induced gene mutations in Arabidopsis were mostly somatic mutations in the early generation, although some mutations could be stably inherited in later generations. However, it remains unclear whether this system will work simil...

the purpose of this investigation was to determine the antioxidant potentials and anti-glucosidase activities of six tropical medicinal plants. the levels of phenolic constituents in these medicinal plants were also quantified and compared. antioxidation potentials were determined colorimetrically for scavenging activities against dpph and no radicals. metal chelating assay was based on the mea...

BACKGROUND Argonaute (AGO) proteins bind to small-interfering (si)RNAs and micro (mi)RNAs to target RNA silencing against viruses, transgenes and in regulation of mRNAs. Plants encode multiple AGO proteins but, in Arabidopsis, only AGO1 is known to have an antiviral role. METHODOLOGY/PRINCIPAL FINDINGS To uncover the roles of specific AGOs in limiting virus accumulation we inoculated turnip c...

Multiple gene silencing is being required to target and tangle metabolic pathways in eukaryotes and researchers have to develop a subtle method for construction of RNA interference (RNAi) cassettes. Although, several vectors have been developed due to different screening and cloning strategies but still some potential limitations remain to be dissolved. Here, we worked out a simple cloning stra...

The nonstructural Pns9 protein of Rice gall dwarf virus (RGDV) accumulates in viroplasm inclusions, which are structures that appear to play an important role in viral morphogenesis and are commonly found in host cells infected by viruses in the family Reoviridae. An RNA interference construct was designed to target the gene for Pns9 of RGDV, namely Trigger_G9. The resultant transgenic plants a...

If the competitive ability of plants produced by self-pollination differs from that of plants derived by outcrossing, then the magnitude of inbreeding depression may be influenced by the composition of the competitive environment (i.e., the frequency of plants that have arisen from selfing and outcrossing in the neighborhood of "target" plants in which inbreeding depression is expressed). Here,...

Canopy photosynthesis models have predicted an optimal leaf area index (LAI; leaf area per unit surface area) and leaf nitrogen distribution at which whole-plant carbon gain per unit N is maximized. In this study we experimentally tested these models, using transgenic P(SAG12)-IPT tobacco (SAG; Nicotiana tabacum L.) plants with delayed leaf senescence and therefore a greater LAI and more unifor...