Biotechnology of RNA

RNA interference has been used for applications in biotechnology, particularly in the engineering of food plants that produce lower levels of natural plant toxins. Such techniques take advantage of the stable and heritable RNAi phenotype in plant stocks. For example, cotton seeds are rich in dietary protein but naturally contain the toxic terpenoid product gossypol, making them unsuitable for human consumption. RNAi has been used to produce cotton stocks whose seeds contain reduced levels of delta-cadinene synthase, a key enzyme in gossypol production, without affecting the enzyme's production in other parts of the plant, where gossypol is important in preventing damage from plant pests.Similar efforts have been directed toward the reduction of the cyanogenic natural product linamarin in cassava plants.
Although no plant products that use RNAi-based genetic engineering have yet passed the experimental stage, development efforts have successfully reduced the levels of allergens in tomato plants and decreased the precursors of likely carcinogens in tobacco plants. Other plant traits that have been engineered in the laboratory include the production of non-narcotic natural products by the opium poppy, resistance to common plant viruses, and fortification of plants such as tomatoes with dietary antioxidants. Previous commercial products, including the Flavr Savr tomato and two cultivars of ringspot-resistant papaya, were originally developed using antisense technology but likely exploited the RNAi pathway.