Revisiting small RNA movement in plants

Regulation of intercellular small RNA (sRNA)-mediated gene silencing in plants is commonly ascribed to hypothetical mechanisms involving movement channels. In this commentary, I present a complementary, perhaps counter-intuitive view, in which sRNA movement is also crucially regulated by the cell-autonomous silencing machinery found in silencing-emitting, traversed and recipient cells.

Automated summary

In this commentary, the author presents a new perspective on the regulation of sRNA movement in plant cells, suggesting that it is not only controlled by movement channels but also by the cell-autonomous silencing machinery.