FIGURE 2.

The host‐induced gene silencing (HIGS) construct encodes an inverted sequence that forms a hairpin double‐stranded (ds) RNA following transcription and is introduced into the host plant either by transient or stable transformation. The dsRNA is processed to form small interfering RNA (siRNA), either before or after delivery to the pathogen cell using the plants innate RNAi machinery. Once inside the fungal cells the siRNA silences the target effector genes by interfering with the target mRNA transcripts (Koch et al., 2018). The movement of small RNA between host and pathogen is detailed by Wang and Dean (2020).