Novel RNA Vaccine Could Free Plants from Pesticide Use
Pesticides are the only toxic substances released intentionally into our environment to kill living things. This includes substances that kill weeds (herbicides), insects (insecticides), fungus (fungicides), rodents (rodenticides), and others.
The use of toxic pesticides to manage pest problems has become a common practice around the world. It is difficult to find somewhere where pesticides aren’t used- from the can of bug spray under the kitchen sink to the airplane crop dusting acres of farmland, our world is filled with pesticides. In addition, pesticides can be found in the air we breathe, the food we eat, and the water we drink.
Now, an international team led by researchers from the University of Helsinki and the French National Centre for Scientific Research has created a new method to produce a vaccine that triggers RNA interference—an innate defense mechanism of plants, animals and other eukaryotic organisms against pathogens.
“A new approach to plant protection involves vaccinating plants against pathogens with double-stranded RNA molecules that can be sprayed directly on the leaves,” explains Dr Minna Poranen of the Molecular and Integrative Biosciences Research Programme at the University of Helsinki’s Faculty of Biological and Environmental Sciences.
“The challenge in developing RNA-based vaccines to protect plants has involved the production of RNA molecules. Double-stranded RNA molecules have been produced through chemical synthesis, both as drug molecules and for research purposes, but such production methods are inefficient and expensive for plant protection,
” Poranen states.
Emerging technologies for crop protection include the external treatment of plants with double-stranded (ds) RNA to trigger RNA interference. However, using this method in greenhouses and fields depends on the dsRNA quality, stability and efficient large-scale production.
In this particular study, scientists designed a vaccine that uses RNA interference, which is an innate defence mechanism of plants, animals and other eukaryotic organisms against pathogens.
This vaccine can be targeted to the chosen pathogen by using RNA molecules which share sequence identity with the pest’s genes and prevents their expression; thereby not influencing the expression of genes in the protected plant in anyway.
Together with researchers at the CNRS, the group has demonstrated the efficacy of RNA-based vaccines produced using the new method against plant virus infections.
This new method will enable the effective production of RNA-based vaccines and promote the development and adoption of RNA-based plant protection methods.
