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ARS Home » Southeast Area » Dawson, Georgia » National Peanut Research Laboratory » Research » Publications at this Location » Publication #312653
Title: RNAi control of aflatoxins in peanut plants, a multifactorial system

Author
item Arias De Ares, Renee
item Dang, Phat
item Sobolev, Victor
item Lamb, Marshall

Submitted to: Meeting Abstract
Publication Type: Abstract Only
Publication Acceptance Date: 11/2/2014
Publication Date: 11/12/2014
Citation: Arias De Ares, R.S., Dang, P.M., Sobolev, V., Lamb, M.C. 2014. RNAi control of aflatoxins in peanut plants, a multifactorial system. Meeting Abstract. International Conference on Advances in Arachis Through Genomics and Biotechnology.

Interpretive Summary: None required.

Technical Abstract: RNA-interference (RNAi)-mediated control of aflatoxin contamination in peanut plants is a multifactorial and hyper variable system. The use of RNAi biotechnology to silence single genes in plants has inherently high-variability among transgenic events. Also the level of expression of small interfering RNA (siRNA) needs to reach certain thresholds to result in effective silencing. It is known that even constitutive promoters, do not express all the time, or in all types of tissues, and they vary with the physiological stage. This is particularly unpredictable in the case of peanut, where the target organ is the seed, and a range of maturity stages are present. On the pathogen side, it is known that silencing of aflR reduced aflatoxin accumulation in Aspergillus flavus, but is also known that genetic variability in aflR exists among different A. flavus isolates. Being RNAi sequence specific, that genetic variation could compromise the effectiveness of silencing.