ArticlePLoS biology2022
The origin of RNA interference: Adaptive or neutral evolution?
Article in PLoS biology, 2022. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 19 papers.
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Who cites it
19 citing papers in PubMed, 35 citations in OpenAlex.
- The RNAi machinery regulates lovastatin biosynthesis via microRNA-like RNAs in industrialSynthetic and systems biotechnology · 2026Article
- An evolutionarily conserved N-terminal domain of RRF-3 governs GTSF-1 binding in nematodes.EMBO reports · 2026Article
- Transcription-replication conflict resolution by nuclear RNA interference.Molecular cell · 2025Article
- Recent advances in understanding of the mechanisms of RNA interference in insects.Insect molecular biology · 2025Review
- The Constructive Neutral Evolution of Behaviour.Ecology and evolution · 2025Article
- Cell-Autonomous and Non-Cell-Autonomous Antiviral Immunity via siRNA-Directed RNAi inImmune discovery · 2025Article
- Exogenous dsRNA triggers sequence-specific RNAi and fungal stress responses to control Magnaporthe oryzae in Brachypodium distachyon.Communications biology · 2025Article
- Understanding developmental system drift.Development (Cambridge, England) · 2024Review
- Non-Coding RNA in Tumor Cells and Tumor-Associated Myeloid Cells-Function and Therapeutic Potential.International journal of molecular sciences · 2024Review
- Challenges and Opportunities Arising from Host-International journal of molecular sciences · 2024Review
- Identification of an active RNAi pathway inProceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America · 2024Article
- Evolution of microRNAs in Amoebozoa and implications for the origin of multicellularity.Nucleic acids research · 2024Article
- Mitochondrially mediated RNA interference, a retrograde signaling system affecting nuclear gene expression.Heredity · 2024Article
- A Comprehensive Study of MicroRNA in Baculoviruses.International journal of molecular sciences · 2024Review
- Human Breast Milk miRNAs: Their Diversity and Potential for Preventive Strategies in Nutritional Therapy.International journal of molecular sciences · 2023Review
- Disruption of theRNA (New York, N.Y.) · 2023Article
- Review
- Editorial: Non-coding RNA in immunotherapies and immune regulation.Frontiers in immunology · 2022Article
- Mitochondrial Dynamics during Development.Newborn (Clarksville, Md.)Article
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
4 authors at 2 institutions in 2 countries.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
The origin of RNA interference (RNAi) is usually explained by a defense-based hypothesis, in which RNAi evolved as a defense against transposable elements (TEs) and RNA viruses and was already present in the last eukaryotic common ancestor (LECA). However, since RNA antisense regulation and double-stranded RNAs (dsRNAs) are ancient and widespread phenomena, the origin of defensive RNAi should have occurred in parallel with its regulative functions to avoid imbalances in gene regulation. Thus, we propose a neutral evolutionary hypothesis for the origin of RNAi in which qualitative system drift from a prokaryotic antisense RNA gene regulation mechanism leads to the formation of RNAi through constructive neutral evolution (CNE). We argue that RNAi was already present in the ancestor of LECA before the need for a new defense system arose and that its presence helped to shape eukaryotic genomic architecture and stability.
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Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the Socratic graph.