Open Access. Powered by Scholars. Published by Universities.®

Molecular Biology Commons

Open Access. Powered by Scholars. Published by Universities.®

Biology

2014

Biogenesis

Articles 1 - 1 of 1

Full-Text Articles in Molecular Biology

The Mechanism Of Small Rna Biogenesis, Degradation, And Function In Arabidopsis, Meng Xie May 2014

The Mechanism Of Small Rna Biogenesis, Degradation, And Function In Arabidopsis, Meng Xie

School of Biological Sciences: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

Eukaryotic small RNAs play important roles in many biological processes through sequence-specific RNA silencing. In plants, there are mainly two small RNAs triggering gene silencing: microRNAs (miRNAs) and small interfering RNAs (siRNAs). The biogenesis and precise regulation of small RNA abundance are crucial for plant growth, development, genomic stability, and the resistance to both abiotic and biotic stresses. In this study, we used Arabidopsis thaliana, the model plant, to study the mechanism of RNA-directed DNA methylation (RdDM), in which siRNAs can trigger DNA methylation and gene silencing. In addition, we investigated the mechanism of miRNA biogenesis and degradation. For …