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Updated: Jun 13, 2026

Screening and Identification of RNA Silencing Suppressors from Secreted Effectors of Plant Pathogens
Published on: February 3, 2020
Small silencing RNAs in plants are mobile and direct epigenetic modification in recipient cells
Attila Molnar1, Charles W Melnyk, Andrew Bassett
1Department of Plant Sciences, University of Cambridge, Cambridge CB2 3EA, UK.
Abstract:
A silencing signal in plants with an RNA specificity determinant moves through plasmodesmata and the phloem. To identify the mobile RNA, we grafted Arabidopsis thaliana shoots to roots that would be a recipient for the silencing signal. Using mutants that block small RNA (sRNA) biogenesis in either source or recipient tissue, we found that transgene-derived sRNA as well as a substantial proportion of the endogenous sRNA had moved across the graft union, and we provide evidence that 24-nucleotide mobile sRNAs direct epigenetic modifications in the genome of the recipient cells. Mobile sRNA thus represents a mechanism for transmitting the specification of epigenetic modification and could affect genome defense and responses to external stimuli that have persistent effects in plants.
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