Application of antisense RNA technology for crop improvement; A review

Abstract

The naturally occurring antisense RNAs are untranslated transcripts which are small and consists of sequences complementary to a target mRNA and acts as a biological off switch. Antisense RNAs can cause target mRNA’s complete degradation, change mRNA processing and/or regulate mRNA transcription and in this manner gene expression can be regulated or completely inhibited as it functions at post transcriptional level. This antisense RNA technology has very wide application and has proven to be an effective technique for understanding function/s of individual genes. This technique has been broadly used in Crop Improvement by down-regulating specific gene/s and completely inhibiting protein production responsible for damaging/ reducing crop production.