23Small interfering RNAs (siRNAs) and microRNAs (miRNAs) are effector molecules of RNA 24 interference (RNAi), a highly conserved RNA-based gene suppression mechanism in plants, 25 mammals and other eukaryotes. Endogenous RNAi-based gene suppression has been harnessed 26 naturally and through conventional breeding to achieve desired plant phenotypes. The present 27 study demonstrates that endogenous small RNAs, such as siRNAs and miRNAs, are abundant in 28 soybean seeds, corn kernels, and rice grain, plant tissues that are traditionally used for food and 29 feed. Numerous endogenous plant small RNAs were found to have perfect complementarity to 30 human genes as well as those of other mammals. The abundance of endogenous small RNA 31 molecules in grain from safely consumed food and feed crops such as soybean, corn, and rice 32 ACCEPTED MANUSCRIPT 3 and the homology of a number of these dietary small RNAs to human and animal genomes and 1 transcriptomes establishes a history of safe consumption for dietary small RNAs. 2 3 Introduction: 4 RNA-mediated gene regulation (RNA interference, RNAi) is a highly conserved endogenous 5 mechanism for regulation of gene expression in eukaryotes that operates through multiple 6 pathways (Di Serio et al., 2001;Bantounas et al., 2004;Mello and Conte, 2004; Brodersen and 7 Voinnet, 2006;Mallory and Vaucheret, 2006). RNAi plays important roles in development, 8 pathogen defense and disease response in mammals, plants, and insects (Chang and Mendell, 9 2007;Pedersen et al., 2007). RNAi pathways are triggered by small RNAs that are usually 20 to 10 26 nucleotides (nt) long and are represented by diverse classes that differ from each other in their 11 biogenesis such as small interfering RNAs (siRNAs), microRNAs (miRNAs), trans-acting 12 siRNAs and other classes of small RNAs (Brodersen and Voinnet, 2006; Mallory and Vaucheret, 13 2006;Peters and Meister, 2007). The function of these various classes of small RNAs in animal 14 and plant RNAi pathways involves sequence-specific recruitment of the RNA silencing complex 15 to mRNA or DNA, leading to target mRNA cleavage, translational inhibition, or DNA 16 modifications ( Figure 1). Small RNA regulatory networks are highly conserved in plants and 17 animals and are an essential part of endogenous gene regulation. For example, it has been 18 predicted that endogenous miRNAs likely regulate expression of at least one third of all human 19 genes (Lewis et al., 2005). 20
21RNAi has been harnessed in the improvement of several conventional crops including soybean, 22 rice and maize. Soybean varieties that are precursors to those currently cultivated have a dark 23 ACCEPTED MANUSCRIPT 4 pigmentation due to anthocyanin content. Breeders have selected for soybeans with a yellow 1 seed coat attributed to RNAi-mediated suppression of the chalcone synthase gene (Tuteja et al., 2 2004). RNAi has also been attributed to a conventional low-glutelin (seed storage protein) rice 3 variety useful for those who must restrict dietary p...