ABSTRACT
World food supply is still threatened by various biotic stresses despite of substantial advances in plant disease management strategies. The situation demands judicious blending of conventional, unconventional and frontier technologies. Biotechnological novel techniques such as tissue culture and genetic engineering help us to achieve this goal by producing new organisms and or products that can be used in variety of ways. In this regard, RNA interference (RNAi) has emerged as a powerful technology for controlling various challenging diseases caused by viruses, fungi and bacteria. RNAi is a mechanism for RNA-guided regulation of gene expression in which double-stranded ribonucleic acid (dsRNA) inhibits the expression of genes with complementary nucleotide sequences. The application of tissue-specific or inducible gene silencing together help in silencing several genes simultaneously will result in protection of crops against destructive pathogens. RNAi application has resulted in successful control of many economically important diseases in plants.
