Small RNAs and extracellular vesicles: New mechanisms of cross-species communication and innovative tools for disease control

State Key Laboratory of Hybrid Rice, College of Life Sciences, Wuhan University, Wuhan, China Affiliation: Department of Microbiology and Plant Pathology, Center for Plant Cell Biology, Institute for Integrative Genome Biology, University of California, Riverside, California, United States of America Baoye He Affiliation: Department of Microbiology and Plant Pathology, Center for Plant Cell Biology, Institute for Integrative Genome Biology, University of California, Riverside, California, United States of America ORCID logo http://orcid.org/0000-0003-0401-4955 Arne Weiberg Affiliation: Department of Biology, Ludwig-Maximilians University of Munich (LMU), Munich, Germany ORCID logo http://orcid.org/0000-0003-4300-4864 Amy H. Buck Affiliations Institute of Immunology and Infection Research, School of Biological Sciences, University of Edinburgh, Edinburgh, United Kingdom, Centre for Immunity, Infection and Evolution, School of Biological Sciences, University of Edinburgh, Edinburgh, United Kingdom ORCID logo http://orcid.org/0000-0003-2645-7191 Hailing Jin * E-mail: hailingj@ucr.edu Affiliation: Department of Microbiology and Plant Pathology, Center for Plant Cell Biology, Institute for Integrative Genome Biology, University of California, Riverside, California, United States of America ORCID logo http://orcid.org/0000-0001-5778-5193 Citation: Cai Q, He B, Weiberg A, Buck AH, Jin H (2019) Small RNAs and extracellular vesicles: In detail, Botrytis cinerea, the grey mold fungal pathogen that infects over 1,000 plant species, delivers sRNAs into plant cells and hijacks host RNAi machinery by loading its sRNAs into the Arabidopsis AGO1 protein to trigger silencing of host immunity genes, including mitogen-activated protein kinases (MAPKs), cell-wall–associated kinases, and other defense and signaling proteins [2]. AGO, Argonaute; EE, early endosome; ER, endoplasmic reticulum; EV, extracellular vesicle; MV, microvesicle; MVB, multivesicular body; RNAi, RNA interference; sRNA, small RNA; TGN, trans-Golgi network. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.ppat.1008090.g001 Cross-kingdom sRNA trafficking from a fungal pathogen to an animal host was also observed recently. Patients who suffer from sickle cell anemia show abnormal erythrocyte development but exhibit resistance to the malaria parasite Plasmodium falciparum.