Further Elucidation of the Argonaute and Dicer Protein Families in the Model Grass Species Brachypodium distachyon.

ABSTRACT: RNA interference (RNAi) is a biological process in which small RNAs regulate gene silencing at the transcriptional or posttranscriptional level. The trigger for gene silencing is double-stranded RNA generated from an endogenous genomic locus or a foreign source, such as a transgene or virus. In addition to regulating endogenous gene expression, RNAi provides the mechanistic basis for small RNA-mediated communication between plant hosts and interacting pathogenic microbes, known as cross-kingdom RNAi. Two core protein components, Argonaute (AGO) and Dicer (DCL), are central to the RNAi machinery of eukaryotes. Plants encode for several copies of AGO and DCL genes; in Arabidopsis thaliana, the AGO protein family contains 10 members, and the DCL family contains four. Litt

SUBMITTER: Secic E 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC6822278 | biostudies-literature | 2019

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature