This Research Topic aims to collect selected contributions from OECD Conference on RNAi Based Pesticides, held in Paris, France, on April 10-12, 2019, as well as spontaneous submissions from experts working in the subject.

As stated by the United Nation’s millennium goals, one of the biggest future challenges for humanity is the reduction of hunger by the year 2030. According to specialists, the only way to reach this goal is to increase drastically the food production capacity to be able to feed the 8.3 billion people expected at this date. Crop protection is, therefore, crucial to achieving this goal by maximizing yield while adapting to a constantly changing climate and the emergence of virulent pathogens. The expected increase of synthetic pesticides and fungicides usage will impact considerably on the ecosystems. Therefore, the development of environmentally-friendly pesticides targeting pathogens in a more specific way is urgently needed. Approaches based on the use of nucleic acids triggering RNA silencing in pathogens in a sequence-specific manner are very promising and few preliminary works reported efficient protection of crops. One method called Spray-Induced Gene Silencing (SIGS) is of particular interest. However, additional studies covering all aspects of exogenous application of nucleic acids to protect plants still have to be developed and discussed.

In this Research Topic, we welcome submissions that could advance the development of this new type of pesticide considered environmentally-friendly. Contributions to the following themes are particularly encouraged:

- Case studies on bidirectional cross-kingdom RNA- or small RNA-based mechanisms in plant-pathogen or plant-parasite interactions.
- Case studies on cross-kingdom RNA- or small RNA-based mechanisms in tri-partite interactions (plant-pathogen1-pathogen2).
- Studies on RNAi-based pesticides against nematodes
- Studies about formulation or emulsions to use for spraying siRNAs or other types of RNA on crops or model plants.
- Studies about the legislative aspects covering the use of encapsulated or naked nucleic acids in plant protection.
- Environmental RNAi studies.

Studies describing transgenic plants expressing dsRNA or any other type of RNA, or also known as Host-Induced Gene Silencing (HIGS) will not be considered and would rather be proposed to other Research Topics in plant-microbe interactions.

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Frontiers in Plant Science

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