Next-generation insect-resistant plants: RNAi-mediated crop protection
Open accessAbstract
Plant-mediated RNA interference (RNAi) shows great potential in crop protection. It relies on plants stably expressing double-stranded RNAs (dsRNAs) that target essential genes in pest insects. Practical application of this strategy is challenging because producing sufficient amounts of stable dsRNA in plants has proven to be difficult to achieve with conventional transgenesis. In addition, many insects do not respond to exogenously applied dsRNAs, either degrading them or failing to import them into the cytoplasm. We summarize recent progress in RNAi-mediated insect pest control and discuss factors determining its efficacy. Expressing dsRNA in chloroplasts overcomes many of the difficulties previously encountered. We also highlight remaining challenges and discuss the environmental and biosafety issues involved in the use of this technology in agriculture.
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Plants can be developed to produce dsRNA that silences an essential gene in the target species after ingestion.
“Another promising new development is the use of RNA interference (RNAi) to control arthropod pests by developing plants to produce double-stranded RNA (dsRNA) that silences an essential gene in the target species after ingestion (Burand and Hunter, 2013;Zhang et al., 2017).”
From Genetically engineered crops help support conservation biological control (2019) · cites this paper as Zhang et al., 2017
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Genetically engineered crops help support conservation biological control
Romeis, J., Naranjo, S. E., Meissle, M., & Shelton, A. M. (2019) · Biological Control · doi:10.1016/j.biocontrol.2018.10.001 · Cited by 231 · see citing works
“Another promising new development is the use of RNA interference (RNAi) to control arthropod pests by developing plants to produce double-stranded RNA (dsRNA) that silences an essential gene in the target species after ingestion (Burand and Hunter, 2013; Zhang et al., 2017).”
Background
- Authors
- Zhang, J., Khan, S. A., Heckel, D. G., & Bock, R.
- Affiliations
- Max Planck Institute of Molecular Plant Physiology (DE)
- Max Planck Institute for Chemical Ecology (DE)
- Corresponding author
- Heckel, David G.
- Bock, Ralph
- Venue
- Trends in Biotechnology
- Publisher
- Elsevier BV
- Published
- 2017-09
- Volume
- 35
- Issue
- 9
- Pages
- 871-882
- ISSN
- 0167-7799 (ISSN-L)
- OpenAlex
- W2736891943
- Semantic Scholar
- 3b9eed76690e4a5238f8411c72bb81e575dc29ed
- Cited by
- 348
- References
- 53
- Citations by year
- 2026: 24 · 2025: 41 · 2024: 42 · 2023: 31 · 2022: 52 · 2021: 50 · 2020: 37 · 2019: 39 · 2018: 30 · 2017: 2
- FWCI
- 2.76
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- green
- zenodo.org
- Licence
- Locations
- Trends in biotechnology (publishedVersion)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- MPG.PuRe (Max Planck Society) (submittedVersion)
- Zenodo (CERN European Organization for Nuclear Research) (submittedVersion, other-oa)
- Funders
- European Research Council (ERC) (669982)
- National Natural Science Foundation of China (31572071)
- National Key Research and Development Program of China (SQ2017YFNC030122)
- Science and Technology Department of Hubei Province of China (2016CFA052)
- Recruitment Program of Global Experts
- Topics
- Life Sciences › Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology › Molecular Biology › Insect Resistance and Genetics
- Life Sciences › Agricultural and Biological Sciences › Insect Science › Insect-Plant Interactions and Control
- Life Sciences › Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology › Biotechnology › Transgenic Plants and Applications
- Keywords
- RNA interference, insect pest control, double-stranded RNA, chloroplast transformation, genetically modified crops, insect resistance, dsRNA stability, biosafety, environmental risk
- MeSH terms
- Animals, Chloroplasts, Insecta, Pest Control, Biological, RNA, Double-Stranded, Crops, Agricultural, RNA, Plant, Plants, Genetically Modified, RNA Interference
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