Review

. 2019 Apr 23;8(4):371.

doi: 10.3390/cells8040371.

Cross-Kingdom Small RNAs Among Animals, Plants and Microbes

Jun Zeng^{1

2}, Vijai Kumar Gupta³, Yueming Jiang^{4

5}, Bao Yang^{6

7}, Liang Gong^{8

9}, Hong Zhu^{10

11}

Affiliations

¹ Key Laboratory of South China Agricultural Plant Molecular Analysis and Genetic Improvement, South China Botanical Garden, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Guangzhou 510650, China. junzeng@scbg.ac.cn.
² University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100049, China. junzeng@scbg.ac.cn.
³ Department of Chemistry and Biotechnology, School of Science, Tallinn University of Technology, 12618 Tallinn, Estonia. vijaifzd@gmail.com.
⁴ Key Laboratory of Plant Resource Conservation and Sustainable Utilization, Guangdong Provincial Key Laboratory of Applied Botany, South China Botanical Garden, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Guangzhou 510650, China. ymjiang@scbg.ac.cn.
⁵ Key Laboratory of Post-Harvest Handling of fruits, Ministry of Agriculture, Guangzhou 510650, China. ymjiang@scbg.ac.cn.
⁶ Key Laboratory of Plant Resource Conservation and Sustainable Utilization, Guangdong Provincial Key Laboratory of Applied Botany, South China Botanical Garden, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Guangzhou 510650, China. yangbao@scbg.ac.cn.
⁷ Key Laboratory of Post-Harvest Handling of fruits, Ministry of Agriculture, Guangzhou 510650, China. yangbao@scbg.ac.cn.
⁸ Key Laboratory of Plant Resource Conservation and Sustainable Utilization, Guangdong Provincial Key Laboratory of Applied Botany, South China Botanical Garden, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Guangzhou 510650, China. lianggong@scbg.ac.cn.
⁹ Key Laboratory of Post-Harvest Handling of fruits, Ministry of Agriculture, Guangzhou 510650, China. lianggong@scbg.ac.cn.
¹⁰ Key Laboratory of South China Agricultural Plant Molecular Analysis and Genetic Improvement, South China Botanical Garden, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Guangzhou 510650, China. zhuhong@scbg.ac.cn.
¹¹ Key Laboratory of Post-Harvest Handling of fruits, Ministry of Agriculture, Guangzhou 510650, China. zhuhong@scbg.ac.cn.

PMID: 31018602
PMCID: PMC6523504
DOI: 10.3390/cells8040371

Review

Cross-Kingdom Small RNAs Among Animals, Plants and Microbes

Jun Zeng et al. Cells. 2019.

. 2019 Apr 23;8(4):371.

doi: 10.3390/cells8040371.

Authors

Jun Zeng^{1

2}, Vijai Kumar Gupta³, Yueming Jiang^{4

5}, Bao Yang^{6

7}, Liang Gong^{8

9}, Hong Zhu^{10

11}

Affiliations

¹ Key Laboratory of South China Agricultural Plant Molecular Analysis and Genetic Improvement, South China Botanical Garden, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Guangzhou 510650, China. junzeng@scbg.ac.cn.
² University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100049, China. junzeng@scbg.ac.cn.
³ Department of Chemistry and Biotechnology, School of Science, Tallinn University of Technology, 12618 Tallinn, Estonia. vijaifzd@gmail.com.
⁴ Key Laboratory of Plant Resource Conservation and Sustainable Utilization, Guangdong Provincial Key Laboratory of Applied Botany, South China Botanical Garden, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Guangzhou 510650, China. ymjiang@scbg.ac.cn.
⁵ Key Laboratory of Post-Harvest Handling of fruits, Ministry of Agriculture, Guangzhou 510650, China. ymjiang@scbg.ac.cn.
⁶ Key Laboratory of Plant Resource Conservation and Sustainable Utilization, Guangdong Provincial Key Laboratory of Applied Botany, South China Botanical Garden, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Guangzhou 510650, China. yangbao@scbg.ac.cn.
⁷ Key Laboratory of Post-Harvest Handling of fruits, Ministry of Agriculture, Guangzhou 510650, China. yangbao@scbg.ac.cn.
⁸ Key Laboratory of Plant Resource Conservation and Sustainable Utilization, Guangdong Provincial Key Laboratory of Applied Botany, South China Botanical Garden, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Guangzhou 510650, China. lianggong@scbg.ac.cn.
⁹ Key Laboratory of Post-Harvest Handling of fruits, Ministry of Agriculture, Guangzhou 510650, China. lianggong@scbg.ac.cn.
¹⁰ Key Laboratory of South China Agricultural Plant Molecular Analysis and Genetic Improvement, South China Botanical Garden, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Guangzhou 510650, China. zhuhong@scbg.ac.cn.
¹¹ Key Laboratory of Post-Harvest Handling of fruits, Ministry of Agriculture, Guangzhou 510650, China. zhuhong@scbg.ac.cn.

PMID: 31018602
PMCID: PMC6523504
DOI: 10.3390/cells8040371

Abstract

Small RNAs (sRNAs), a class of regulatory non-coding RNAs around 20~30-nt long, including small interfering RNAs (siRNAs) and microRNAs (miRNAs), are critical regulators of gene expression. Recently, accumulating evidence indicates that sRNAs can be transferred not only within cells and tissues of individual organisms, but also across different eukaryotic species, serving as a bond connecting the animal, plant, and microbial worlds. In this review, we summarize the results from recent studies on cross-kingdom sRNA communication. We not only review the horizontal transfer of sRNAs among animals, plants and microbes, but also discuss the mechanism of RNA interference (RNAi) signal transmission via cross-kingdom sRNAs. We also compare the advantages of host-induced gene silencing (HIGS) and spray-induced gene silencing (SIGS) technology and look forward to their applicable prospects in controlling fungal diseases.

Keywords: HIGS; RNA interference; SIGS; crop protection; cross-kingdom RNAi; small RNAs.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare no conflicts of interest.

Figures

**Figure 1**
Cross-kingdom small regulatory RNAs in plant-pathogen interactions. Transfer of representative sRNAs between fungal pathogens and host plant species are presented. The arrows indicate the direction of the sRNA transfer.

**Figure 2**
Host-induced gene silencing (HIGS) and spray-induced gene silencing (SIGS) for controlling fungal pathogens. This schematic diagram illustrates the transmission of cross-kingdom RNAi signals in plant-fungal pathogen interactions, and how HIGS and SIGS can be used to protect plants against fungal infection. On the left panel, fungal pathogens deliver sRNA effectors into host plant cells and hijack the host innate immune system (blue arrows and blue block sign). To react, the host plant cells also export either endogenous sRNAs or artificial sRNAs into pathogen cells to silence virulence genes and other important genes for fungi growth (purple arrows and purple block sign). On the right panel, SIGS sRNAs or long dsRNAs, which target fungal pathogenicity-related genes, can be either taken up directly by pathogen cells, or indirectly move from hosts that uptake them to pathogen cells (red arrows).

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Cross-Kingdom Small RNAs Among Animals, Plants and Microbes

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Cross-Kingdom Small RNAs Among Animals, Plants and Microbes

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Conflict of interest statement

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