Question

Tobacco plants are damaged severely when infested with Meloidegyne incognitia. Name and explain the strategy that is adopted to stop this infestation.

Answer 1

Nematode Meloidegyne incognitia infects the roots of tobacco plants and causes a great reduction in yield. RNA interference (RNAi) was used to stop this infestation. This method involves silencing of a specific mRNA due to a complementary dsRNA molecule that binds to and prevents translation of the mRNA (silencing). The source of this complementary RNA could be from an infection by viruses having RNA genomes or mobile genetic elements (transposons) that replicate via an RNA intermediate.