Overexpression of Arabidopsis thaliana ERI, the homolog of C. elegans Enhancer of RNAinterference, leads to enhanced growth.

ABSTRACT: Organisms adopt a wide range of strategies to adapt to change. Gene silencing describes the ability of organisms to modulate the expression of susceptible genes at certain times at the transcriptional or the translational level. In all known eukaryotic organisms 21-nt long short interfering RNAs (siRNAs) are the effector molecules of post-transcriptional gene silencing (PTGS), while 24-nt long siRNAs are involved in PTGS in plants. Mutant studies in Caenorhabditis elegans lead to the identification of the enzyme ERI (Enhancer of RNAinterference) with enhanced PTGS. Although the genes involved in growth vigor and growth rate are still unknown, it becomes clearer that the population of small RNAs plays a role in the very early phase of plant development. To pinpoint the link between growth a

SUBMITTER: Meyer RC 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4510415 | biostudies-literature | 2015

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature