Proceedings of the XLVII Italian Society of Agricultural Genetics - SIGA Annual Congress

Verona, Italy - 24/27 September, 2003

ISBN 88-900622-4-X

Oral Communication Abstract - S1a

THE LONG AND SHORT OF RNA SILENCING

D. BAULCOMBE

RNA silencing is a eukaryotic genome defence system that involves processing of double strand (ds) RNA into 21-26nt short RNAs. The short RNA mediates sequence specific suppression of genes corresponding to the dsRNA. In plants RNA silencing is primarily an antiviral defense system. However, during evolution, it seems that there has been duplication and functional differentiation of the genes required for silencing. Consequently there are now different versions of the silencing mechanism operating in the nucleus and cytoplasm and that are targeted at transcription, RNA stability, translation and possibly other processes required for gene expression. I will describe our progress to unravelling the complexity of RNA silencing through the analysis of gene families and different types of short RNA.