SiRNA Induced Gene Silencing and Its Application in Plant Anti-virus

Gene silencing is a phenomenon of homologous RNA degradation, which might have arisen as an ancient RNA surveillance system that acts as a natural defense mechanism against invasive nucleic acids. From long period evolution with plants, plant virus obtains the ability to code gene silencing suppressors against this defense system. This paper reviewed the advancement of gene silencing mechanism, silencing suppressors coded by virus, and the application of gene silencing in plant anti-virus engineering.