Biologists have shown that the surfaces of plant leaves are coated with a diverse array of RNA molecules. The finding suggests that the RNA present on the leaf surface may play a role in shaping the microbial communities that inhabit them, potentially influencing plant health and interactions within their environment, according to a new study.
Biologists at Indiana University Bloomington have shown that the surfaces of plant leaves are coated with a diverse array of RNA molecules. The finding suggests that the RNA present on the leaf surface may play a role in shaping the microbial communities that inhabit them, potentially influencing plant health and interactions within their environment, according to a new study.
"What excites us most about this discovery is that it indicates plants may control their microbiomes, in part, by regulating gene expression in microbes using cross-kingdom RNA interference, also known as RNAi," said Innes."RNA interference is a well-known type of gene regulation in which cells can turn down the expression of a gene by expressing a small RNA that can base pair with the RNA of the target gene.
The paper found there are abundant RNAs on leaf surfaces that are surprisingly stable. Data presented in the paper suggests that this stability might be associated with the ability of the RNA to form condensates with polysaccharides, such as pectin. By discovering that plant leaves are coated with RNA, this work shows that the microbes that colonize the surfaces of leaves are exposed to plant RNA and likely interact with this RNA.
Additional contributors to the paper were Megha Hastantram Sampangi-Ramaiah and Hana Zand Karimi of the Indiana University Department of Biology, Patricia Baldrich and Blake C. Meyers of University of California -- Davis, and Madison McGregor of the Donald Danforth Plant Science Center.M. Lucía Borniego, Meenu Singla-Rastogi, Patricia Baldrich, Megha Hastantram Sampangi-Ramaiah, Hana Zand Karimi, Madison McGregor, Blake C. Meyers, Roger W. Innes.
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