Uncovering RNAi mechanisms in plants: Biochemistry enters the foray

In plants, the RNA interference (RNAi) machinery responds to a variety of triggers including viral infection, transgenes, repeated elements and transposons. All of these triggers lead to silencing outcomes ranging from mRNA degradation to translational repression to chromatin remodeling. Thus, plants offer us a potentially unique opportunity to understand the full range of RNAi effector mechanisms. In this review, we discuss the recent developments in our understanding of plant RNAi mechanisms from a biochemical perspective. (c) 2005 Federation of European Biochemical Societies. Published by Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.