Host induced gene silencing of the Sclerotinia sclerotiorum ABHYDROLASE-3 gene reduces disease severity in Brassica napus.

Sclerotinia sclerotiorum is a pathogenic fungus that infects hundreds of crop species, causing extensive yield loss every year. Chemical fungicides are used to control this phytopathogen, but with concerns about increasing resistance and impacts on non-target species, there is a need to develop alternative control measures. In the present study, we engineered Brassica napus to constitutively express a hairpin (hp)RNA molecule to silence ABHYRDOLASE-3 in S.

The complete mitochondrial genome of the brown pansy butterfly, (Aurivillius, 1894), (Insecta: Lepidoptera: Nymphalidae).

The brown pansy, (Aurivillius, 1894) (Lepidoptera: Nymphalidae), is a widespread West African forest butterfly. Genome skimming by Illumina sequencing allowed assembly of a complete 15,233 bp circular mitogenome from consisting of 79.5% AT nucleotides.

Clathrin mediated endocytosis is involved in the uptake of exogenous double-stranded RNA in the white mold phytopathogen Sclerotinia sclerotiorum.

RNA interference (RNAi) technologies have recently been developed to control a growing number of agronomically significant fungal phytopathogens, including the white mold pathogen, Sclerotinia sclerotiorum. Exposure of this fungus to exogenous double-stranded RNA (dsRNA) results in potent RNAi-mediated knockdown of target genes' transcripts, but it is unclear how the dsRNA can enter the fungal cells. In nematodes, specialized dsRNA transport proteins such as SID-1 facilitate dsRNA uptake, but for many other eukaryotes in which the dsRNA uptake mechanisms have been examined, endocytosis appears to mediate the uptake process.