RNA interference (RNAi) mechanism and application in vegetable crops

RNA interference (RNAi) is a gene silencing mechanism that occurs after transcription. It is induced by double stranded RNA which results in a sequence-specific gene regulation by small RNAs thus results in mRNA degradation. RNA silencing pathways in plants are small interfering RNA (siRNA), micro RNA (miRNA), short hairpin RNA (shRNA) that also involves enzymes, and protein complex for complete mechanism. RNAi applications have been used to increase biotic and abiotic resistance, alter plant architecture, improve fruit quality, enhanced nutritional values, enhanced secondary metabolites, seedless fruits, reduced anti-nutritional toxic compounds, reduced allergens and to develop high-value industrial products. Therefore, RNAi is a novel approach that can be exploited for functional analysis of target genes, regulation of gene expression, improved quality traits, alternative method for crop protection and production in vegetables. This review is an attempt to collect current information on the RNAi mechanism and its application in the improvement of vegetable crops.