Cross-kingdom RNA trafficking and environmental RNAi - nature's blueprint for modern crop protection strategies

In plants, small RNA (sRNA)-mediated RNA interference (RNAi) is critical for regulating host immunity against bacteria, fungi, oomycetes, viruses, and pests. Similarly, sRNAs from pathogens and pests also play an important role in modulating their virulence. Strikingly, recent evidence supports that some sRNAs can travel between interacting organisms and induce gene silencing in the counter party, a mechanism termed cross-kingdom RNAi. Exploiting this new knowledge, host-induced gene silencing (HIGS) by transgenic expression of pathogen gene-targeting double-stranded (ds)RNA has the potential to become an important disease-control method. To circumvent transgenic approaches, direct application of dsRNAs or sRNAs (environmental RNAi) onto host plants or post-harvest products leads to silencing of the target microbe/pest gene (referred to spray-induced gene silencing, SIGS) and confers efficient disease control. This review summarizes the current understanding of cross-kingdom RNA trafficking and environmental RNAi and how these findings can be developed into novel effective strategies to fight diseases caused by microbial pathogens and pests.