RNAi technology: A Novel approaches against fungal infections

Abstract

Despite the introduction of new antifungal agents, resistances to antifungal therapy continue to increase and outcome of invasive fungal infections treatment is frequently suboptimal. A large amount of the recent effort in antifungal drug discovery has focused on a limited set of targets with functions known or expected to be important for fungal viability and virulence. A variety of techniques can be used to identify fungal genes of interest. Gene expression profiling, RNA mediated gene silencing and insertional mutagenesis are three main molecular genetics technologies used to identify and validate antifungal drug targets. The term of RNA interference (RNAi) refers to a cellular process by which a sequence-specific double-stranded RNA (dsRNA) inhibits the expression of a gene. This mechanism is strongly conserved in eukaryotes and has been documented to be existed in different fungal species such as Candida albicans, Aspergillus nidulans and Penicillium marneffei. Many vital and virulence genes have been successfully knocked down using RNAi technology. RNAi would be regarded as a promising approach for discovery of new gene targets for the design of fungus-specific antifungal agents. Here we discuss about a novel approach and its application in designing new molecular antifungal targets.

Control of postharvest fungal diseases in fruits using external application of RNAi

“…The HIGS technique is used for gene silencing with RNAi to control fungi such as Fusarium graminearum in agricultural products (Koch et al., 2013). In this case, silencing is through genetic modification of the plant to endogenously produce the dsRNA molecules specific to the pathogen's target genes (Machado et al., 2018; Moazeni et al., 2014). Another case was the modification of tobacco plants to express dsRNAs complementary to the mRNA of the β ‐glucuronidase (GUS) gene of a transgenic strain of Fusarium verticillioides (Tinoco et al., 2010).…”

“…This produces genetically modified organisms (GMO), which are frequently rejected by the end‐users. Difficulty in applying the manipulated RNAs, the instability of their characteristics after target gene silencing, and the lack of protocols for carrying out genetic transformations in several species (Machado et al., 2018; Moazeni et al., 2014) are the major concerns in their wider use.…”