# Cross-kingdom RNA communications between plant and fungal pathogens

> **NIH NIH R35** · UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA RIVERSIDE · 2022 · $377,308

## Abstract

SUMMARY
Fungal pathogens infect humans, animals, and plants and cause severe consequences on
global human health and crop production. Communication between hosts and pathogens is
essential for host defense and pathogen virulence, but the underlying mechanisms are not
well understood. Previous studies in my lab discovered that some non-coding regulatory
small RNAs (sRNAs) from fungal pathogens, such as Botrytis cinerea, which causes grey
mold disease on more than 1000 plant species, can be transported into host plant cells and
suppress host immunity genes, a mechanism called “Cross-Kingdom RNAi”. Recently, we
discovered that such sRNA communication is bi-directional. Plant hosts have also
developed the ability to deliver sRNAs, mainly using extracellular vesicles, to fungal cells
and induce cross-kingdom RNAi of fungal virulence-related genes. Such sRNA
communication was also observed between mammals and parasites. Although more and
more studies across diverse systems demonstrate that mobile sRNAs are key regulatory
molecules in host and pathogen interactions, the field of cross-kingdom/cross-species RNA
communication is still in its infancy. This proposal is designed to use plant Arabidopsis
and fungal pathogen Botrytis as a model system to address the outstanding questions in this
field, including, how host cells control sRNA transport upon infection, how specific classes
of small RNAs are sorted into extracellular vesicles, how fungal cells deliver sRNAs into
host cells, what are the mechanisms of RNA and vesicle uptake in the host cells and fungal
cells, and whether other classes of RNAs, such as mRNAs and long non-coding RNAs,
move between host and fungal cells, how they function in the counter party, etc.. A
combination of genetics, genomics, biochemical and molecular biology approaches will be
used. This project is expected to provide unprecedented insight into the underlying
mechanisms of cross-kingdom/cross-species RNA communications, which will ultimately
help develop innovative and eco-friendly disease control strategies and RNA-based
fungicides or antifungal drugs.

## Key facts

- **NIH application ID:** 10468983
- **Project number:** 5R35GM136379-03
- **Recipient organization:** UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA RIVERSIDE
- **Principal Investigator:** Hailing Jin
- **Activity code:** R35 (R01, R21, SBIR, etc.)
- **Funding institute:** NIH
- **Fiscal year:** 2022
- **Award amount:** $377,308
- **Award type:** 5
- **Project period:** 2020-09-15 → 2025-08-31

## Primary source

NIH RePORTER: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/10468983

## Citation

> US National Institutes of Health, RePORTER application 10468983, Cross-kingdom RNA communications between plant and fungal pathogens (5R35GM136379-03). Retrieved via AI Analytics 2026-05-23 from https://api.ai-analytics.org/grant/nih/10468983. Licensed CC0.

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