Includes bibliographical references and index.

Diversity of RNA silencing pathways in plants / by Emilie Elvira-Matelot, �Angel Emilio Mart�inez de Alba and Herv�e Vaucheret -- Induction and suppression of silencing by plant viruses / by Ares Mingot, Adrian Valli, Juan Jos�e L�opez-Moya and Juan Antonio Garc�ia -- Artificial induction and maintenance of epigenetic variations in plants / by Soumita Das, Rahul Raj Singh and P.V. Shivaprasad -- Gene silencing in archaeplastida algae / by Xinrong Ma, Eun-Jeong Kim and Heriberto Cerutti -- Gene silencing in fungi : a diversity of pathways and functions / by Santiago Torres-Mart�inez and Rosa M. Ruiz-V�azquez -- Artificial small RNA-based strategies for effective and specific gene silencing in plants / by Alberto Carbonell -- Application of RNA silencing in improving plant traits for industrial use / by Sumit Ghosh and Asis Datta -- Increasing nutritional value by RNA silencing / by Elsa Pons and Leandro Pe�na -- RNA-based control of plant diseases : a case study with fusarium graminearum / by Aline Koch & Karl-Heinz Kogel -- Targeting nematode genes by RNA silencing / by John Fosu-Nyarko, Sadia Iqbal and Michael G. K. Jones -- Gene silencing provides efficient protection against viruses / by Mario Tavazza, Alessandra Lucioli and Vincenza Ilardi.

This book describes both the theory of gene silencing and also the application. The first five chapters discuss different aspects of the gene silencing mechanism. Since the silencing pathways are particularly diverse in plants, a whole chapter is dedicated to describe these (chapter 1). It is a generally accepted view that gene silencing has evolved in plants as a defence mechanism against viruses, therefore chapter 2 discusses the 'arms race' between plants and viruses, how viruses trigger silencing and also evolved proteins that can suppress it. Another aspect of gene silencing is the epigenetic changes caused by silencing. This, and how epigenetic changes can be directed, is described in chapter 3. Finally, the theoretical part is closed by two chapters on how gene silencing works in algae (chapter 4) and fungi (chapter 5), two groups of organisms related to plants. The second part of the book is dedicated to application of gene silencing. Small non-coding RNAs are key molecules in the mechanism and chapter 6 discusses various strategies to produce small artificial RNAs. The following chapters describe the application of gene silencing to influence specific, agronomically important traits in plants, including traits for industrial use (chapter 7) and nutritional value (chapter 8). The last three chapters review the use of gene silencing to provide resistance against different types of pathogens including fungi (chapter 9), nematodes (chapter 10) and viruses (chapter 11).

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