AUTHOR=Christie Michael , Brosnan Christopher A., Rothnagel Joseph A., Carroll Bernard J. TITLE=RNA Decay and RNA Silencing in Plants: Competition or Collaboration? JOURNAL=Frontiers in Plant Science VOLUME=2 YEAR=2011 URL=https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/plant-science/articles/10.3389/fpls.2011.00099 DOI=10.3389/fpls.2011.00099 ISSN=1664-462X ABSTRACT=

Initiation of RNA polymerase II transcription signals the beginning of a series of physically and functionally coupled pre-mRNA processing events that transform an RNA transcript into a highly structured, mature ribonucleoprotein complex. With such a complexity of co-transcriptional processes comes the need to identify and degrade improperly processed transcripts. Quality control of mRNA expression primarily involves exonucleolytic degradation of aberrant RNAs. RNA silencing, on the other hand, tends to be viewed separately as a pathway that primarily functions in regulating endogenous gene expression and in genome defense against transposons and viruses. Here, we review current knowledge of these pathways as they exist in plants and draw parallels to similar pathways in other eukaryotes. We then highlight some unexplored overlaps that exist between the RNA silencing and RNA decay pathways of plants, as evidenced by their shared RNA substrates and shared genetic requirements.