Advancing toward commercial application of RNA silencing-based strategies to protect plants from viral diseases

Recent reports have described spraying double-stranded RNAs (dsRNAs) onto plants to efficiently target and protect against pathogens and pests through the cellular RNA silencing pathway. Here we review RNA silencing-based strategies for transgenic plants that have been tested for nearly 20 years and have promise for commercial development to protect plants from viral diseases. The prospects of exogenously supplied dsRNAs (or even short-interfering RNAs [siRNAs]) as antiviral agents will be discussed. Although hurdles still need to be overcome before they can be used commercially, further technological development should soon enable the use of dsRNAs in the field to control viral diseases.