Fig. 2

Critical steps for successful alteration gene expression of an ingesting organism by dietary sRNA (adapted from [64]). (1) Sufficient levels of bio-available sRNA in the diet (potentially packaged (a) in ribonucleoprotein (RNP) complexes or (b) in vesicles); (2) crossing the digestive tract barrier; (3) systemic dissemination; (4) cellular uptake; and (5) alteration of post-transcriptional expression of specific target genes by the RNA-induced silencing complex (RISC, green)