植物RNA沉默机制的研究进展

RNA沉默是真核生物中普遍存在的抵抗病毒复制表达、抑制转座子转座及调控基因表达的监控机制。植物中的RNA沉默(转录水平的基因沉默PTGS)在RdRP的作用、transitive RNAi的双向延伸、沉默效应的系统性传播等方面与动物中有所不同,且植物中的内源性miRNA在数量和种类上也更具多样性。文中就以上方面及RNA沉默在植物中的应用进行了综述。     

RNA沉默与植物病毒

植物中RNA沉默（RNAsilencing)亦称为转录后基因沉默（PTGS）或共抑制,是植物抵抗外来核酸（转座子、转基因或病毒）入侵,并保护自身基因组完整性的一种防御机制。RNA沉默是近十年来发现的植物界中普遍存在的现象,已成为植物分子生物学领域的一个新的研究方向。对RNA沉默特点和机制的研究表明,植物病毒与（转基因）植物内发生的RNA沉默有着密切的联系,作者从病毒对RNA沉默的诱导、抑制、防御等方面,简述了RNA沉默与病毒的关系。并对病毒载体所诱导的RNA沉默在植物发育和基因组功能分析等方面的应用价值进行了讨论。     

病毒诱导的基因沉默及其在植物基因功能研究中的应用

RNA介导的基因沉默是近年来在生物体中发现的一种基于核酸水平高度保守的特异性降解机制.病毒诱导的基因沉默（virus induced gene silencing, VIGS）是指携带植物功能基因cDNA的病毒在侵染植物体后,可诱导植物发生基因沉默而出现表型突变,进而可以研究该目的基因功能.至今,已经建立了以RNA病毒、DNA病毒、卫星病毒和DNA卫星分子为载体的VIGS体系,这些病毒载体能在多种寄主植物（包括拟南芥、番茄和大麦）上有效抑制功能基因的表达.VIGS已开始应用于N基因和Pto基因介导的抗性信号途径中关键基因的功能研究、抗病毒相关的寄主因子研究以及植物代谢和发育调控研究.在当前植物基因组或EST序列大量测定的情况下,VIGS为植物基因功能鉴定提供了有效的技术平台.     

RNA干扰技术在植物线虫基因功能研究及虫害防治方面的应用

RNA干扰（RNA interference,RNAi）是双链RNA（double—stranded RNA,dsRNA）介导的同源mRNA特异降解的过程,具有高效性、非绝对特异性和表型可遗传性。其在遗传育种、基因功能研究、药物研发等各方面具有广泛的运用前景。近年已应用到植物线虫基因功能的研究中。随着对植物线虫基因组及基因功能研究的不断深入。RNAi技术在植物线虫防治方面的研究也取得了很大进展。     

RNA沉默在植物生物逆境反应中的作用

RNA沉默是真核生物共有的基因表达调节机制和防御机制。在植物RNA沉默中, 一些小RNAs, 如微小 RNAs和小干扰RNAs, 在植物防御病毒、细菌或食草动物的反应中具有重要作用。为了抑制宿主的RNA沉默系统, 植物病毒或细菌进化出了在RNA沉默不同阶段起作用的病毒沉默抑制子或细菌沉默抑制子, 来克服寄主的RNA沉默反应。文章就植物RNA沉默、病毒沉默抑制子、细菌沉默抑制子及其相关防御反应的一些新进展做一概述。     

植物RNA沉默的分子机制研究进展

RNA沉默（RNA silencing）是真核生物中的一种抵抗外源遗传因子（病毒、转座子或转基因）及调控基凶表达的防御机制。参与植物RNA沉默的酶及蛋白质主要包括6种RNA依赖的RNA聚合酶、4种Dicer-like（DCL）核酸内切酶和10种Argonautes蛋白。植物中4条RNA沉默途径分别由微小RNA（miRNAs）和3种小干扰RNA（siRNAs）介导,包括反式作用siRNAs（ta－siRNAs）、天然反义siRNAs（natsiRNAs）和异染色质siRNAs（hc-siRNAs）。在植物RNA沉默的系统性传播中,由DCL4或DCL2将dsRNAs裁剪为次级SiRNAS,以放大RNA沉默信号和增强沉默效应。     

植物基因功能鉴定新工具--病毒诱导基因沉默技术的研究进展

病毒诱导基因沉默（Virus—induced gene silencing,VIGS）技术是指带一段靶基因序列的VIGS重组病毒侵染植物、引起植物同源基因沉默与表型变异,进而通过表型变异进行基因功能分析的方法,是近年发展起来的从反向遗传学方向快速鉴定植物基因功能的技术,是转录后基因沉默机制的一种表现。①VIGS的分子机制,涉厦基因沉默的起始、维持和信号放大、传播共3个阶段;②VIGS技术、栽体与方法学的发展;③VIGS作为基因功能研究的优越性,如不必进行转基因、操作方法简便、获得结果快速等;④应用VIGS对植物抗病途径、代谢与发育调控中参与基因功能进行研究的概况。同时。展望了VIGS技术作为植物功能基因组学功能分析的高通量技术平台的美好前景。     

植物RNA沉默抗病机制与应用研究进展

RNA沉默是真核生物基因表达调控的保守机制,在植物生长发育以及响应生物和非生物胁迫过程中发挥着非常重要的作用。跨界RNA沉默与种间RNA沉默为开发基于RNA沉默的作物病害防控体系提供了理论基础。本文概括了植物RNA沉默保守途径,归纳了RNA沉默在植物-病原互作研究中的代表性研究,阐述了基于RNA沉默开发的宿主诱导基因沉默、喷施诱导基因沉默和微生物诱导基因沉默技术的原理,以及应用研究现状,以期为开发基于RNA沉默的新型作物病害防控技术提供参考。     

烟草脆裂病毒诱导的基因沉默在植物基因功能研究中的应用

烟草脆裂病毒(tobaccorattlevirus,TRV)是一类应用比较广泛而且效率和持久性较好的病毒载体,能够介导基因沉默同时不会带来病毒诱导的症状。改造后的病毒能够促进非病毒序列的插入以及对植物的后续感染,也可以鉴定宿主植物生长点的基因,因此TRV在植物基因功能鉴定中具有广泛的应用。该文介绍TRV沉默载体的构建、诱导基因沉默原理、在植物基因功能研究中的应用以及优缺点。     

RNA沉默技术及其在植物中的应用

RNA沉默是广泛存在于生物中的一种古老现象, 是生物抵抗异常DNA的一种保护机制, 同时在生物生长发育过程中扮演着基因表达调控的角色。文章对RNA沉默研究中的几个热点问题进行了介绍, 按RNA沉默持续时间的不同对其在植物中应用的方法进行了分析, 并重点论述了RNA沉默在植物功能基因组研究、作物品质改良以及抗病毒植物培育等方面的应用及其发展前景。     

RNA silencing movement in plants

Multicellular organisms, like higher plants, need to coordinate their growth and development and to cope with environmental cues. To achieve this, various signal molecules are transported between neighboring cells and distant organs to control the fate of the recipient cells and organs. RNA silencing produces cell non-autonomous signal molecules that can move over short or long distances leading to the sequence specific silencing of a target gene in a well defined area of cells or throughout the entire plant,respectively. The nature of these signal molecules, the route of silencing spread, and the genes involved in their production, movement and reception are discussed in this review. Additionally, a short section on features of silencing spread in animal models is presented at the end of this review.     

Moment analysis for kinetics of gene silencing by RNA interference

RNA interference (RNAi) was quantitatively evaluated from a kinetic viewpoint. A simple kinetic evaluation based on moment analysis was proposed, assuming suppression and recovery phases of gene expression. We defined the area under the curve of the inhibitory effect (AUC(IE)) as an index of the total intensity of RNAi and the mean response time of the inhibitory effect (MRT(IE)) as an index of its duration. The proposed kinetic analysis helps to understand the RNAi effect in a quantitative and time-dependent manner, which will be beneficial for designing RNAi-based gene silencing for both experimental and therapeutic purposes.     

Dynamics of gene silencing by RNA interference

The large number of candidate genes identified by modern high-throughput technologies require efficient methods for generating knockout phenotypes or gene silencing in order to study gene function. RNA interference (RNAi) is an efficient method that can be used for this purpose. Effective gene silencing by RNAi depends on a number of important parameters, including the dynamics of gene expression and the RNA dose. Using mouse hepatoma cells, we detail some of the principal characteristics of RNAi as a tool for gene silencing, such as the RNA dose level, RNA complex exposure time, and the time of transfection relative to gene induction, in the context of silencing a green fluorescent protein reporter gene. Our experiments demonstrate that different levels of silencing can be attained by modulating the dose level of RNA and the time of transfection and illustrate the importance of a dynamic analysis in designing robust silencing protocols. By quantifying the kinetics of RNAi-based gene silencing, we present a model that may be used to help determine key parameters in more complex silencing experiments and explore alternative gene silencing protocols.     

RNA-dependent RNA polymerase 6 is required for efficient hpRNA-induced gene silencing in plants

In plants, transgenes with inverted repeats are used to induce efficient RNA silencing, which is also frequently induced by highly transcribed sense transgenes. RNA silencing induced by sense transgenes is dependent on RNA-dependent RNA polymerase 6 (RDR6), which converts single-stranded (ss) RNA into double-stranded (ds) RNA. By contrast, it has been proposed that RNA silencing induced by self-complementary hairpin RNA (hpRNA) does not require RDR6, because the hpRNA can directly fold back on itself to form dsRNA. However, it is unclear whether RDR6 plays a role in hpRNA-induced RNA silencing by amplifying dsRNA to spread RNA silencing within the plant. To address the efficiency of hpRNA-induced RNA silencing in the presence or absence of RDR6, Wild type (WT, Col-0) and rdr6-11 Arabidopsis thaliana lines expressing green fluorescent protein (GFP) were generated and transformed with a GFP-RNA interference (RNAi) construct. Whereas most GFP-RNAi-transformed WT lines exhibited almost complete silencing of GFP expression in the T1 generation, various levels of GFP expression remained among the GFP-RNAi-transformed rdr6-11 lines. Homozygous expression of GFP-RNAi in the T3 generation was not sufficient to induce complete GFP silencing in several rdr6-11 lines. Our results indicate that RDR6 is required for efficient hpRNA-induced RNA silencing in plants.     

RNA:诱导基因沉默

在生物体中,双链RNA(double-strand RNA,dsRNA)裂解后的小RNA可以诱导细胞质和基因组水平外源基因沉默。所谓基因沉默(gene silencing)是指生物体中特定基因由于种种原因不表达。小RNA能诱导互补信使RNA在转录后降解。RNA沉默是基因组水平的免疫现象,代表了进化过程中原始的基因组对抗外源基因序列表达的保护机制,在动植物进化中起着重要作用,RNA沉默具有抵抗病毒入侵、抑制转座子活动等作用,并调控蛋白编码基因的表达,具有十分诱人的应用前景。     

dsRNA介导植物基因沉默及其应用

植物双链RNA(double stranded RNA,dsRNA)能有效干扰同源基因的表达,近年来已成为功能基因组学研究上的新方法。本文综述了植物dsRNA介导的转基因沉默现象及其特点、分子作用机制、主要介导方法,以及近年来在植物功能基因组学研究上的应用情况。     

RNA silencing movement in plants

Higher eukaryotes have developed a mechanism of sequence-specific RNA degradation which is known as RNA silencing. In plants and some animals, similar to the nematode Caenorhabditis elegans, RNA silencing is a non-cell-autonomous event. Hence, silencing initiation in one or a few cells leads progressively to the sequence-specific suppression of homologous sequences in neighbouring cells in an RNA-mediated fashion. Spreading of silencing in plants occurs through plasmodesmata and results from a cell-to-cell movement of a short-range silencing signal, most probably 21-nt siRNAs (short interfering RNAs) that are produced by one of the plant Dicer enzymes. In addition, silencing spreads systemically through the phloem system of the plants, which also translocates metabolites from source to sink tissues. Unlike the short-range silencing signal, there is little known about the mediators of systemic silencing. Recent studies have revealed various and sometimes surprising genetic elements of the short-range silencing spread pathway, elucidating several aspects of the processes involved. In this review we attempt to clarify commonalities and differences between the individual silencing pathways of RNA silencing spread in plants.