Spray induced gene silencing

Summary

Among the most damaging fungal diseases for crops, Botrytis cinerea and Fusarium graminearum have ranked 2nd and 4th position respectively. F. graminearum is responsible for root and stem rot, vascular wilt, fruit rot, head blight of cereal crops e.g. Wheat, Barley and B. cinerea causes grey mold diseases in horticultural crops such as strawberry, grapes, tomatos etc. To date, chemical fungicides have extensively been used to control post-harvest yield loss in cost of posing threat to human and livestock health. Moreover, fungicides cause environmental pollution and eventually giving rise to fungicide resistant fungal strains. Spray induced gene silencing (SIGS) is based on RNA interference (RNAi) which is a conserved cellular defense mechanism. It is effective control measure owing to sequence specificity thus targeting only genes responsible for pathogen virulence and also considered as non-GM product. Hence, SIGS may receive acceptability from both farmers and consumers. Although it has some limitations due to expensive production cost of synthetic dsRNA and effects of dsRNA in field level is still required to be investigated. Nevertheless, SIGS is an emerging novel technology which can potentially control the diseases effectively without compromising the eco system in a sustainable way.