In silico analysis of fungal small RNA accumulation reveals putative plant mRNA targets in the symbiosis between an arbuscular mycorrhizal fungus and its host plant.

The identification of RNAi-related genes, together with the characterization of the sRNAs population, suggest that R. irregularis is equipped with a functional sRNA-generating pathway. Moreover, the in silico analysis predicted 237 plant transcripts as putative targets of specific fungal sRNAs suggesting that cross-kingdom post-transcriptional gene silencing may occur during AMF colonization.