CfMV's P1 protein, required for infection, has been found to interefere with RNAi pathways in plants species such as Nicotiana benthamiana and Nicotiana tabacum.
For example, a research study by Michael Scharf found that it was possible to eradicate termites by using RNAi which disables the Hex-2-gene; this transforms worker termites into soldier termites.
In the fission yeast Schizosaccharomyces pombe two RNAi complexes, the RNAi-induced transcriptional gene silencing (RITS) complex and the RNA-directed RNA polymerase complex (RDRC), are part of an RNAi machinery involved in the initiation, propagation and maintenance of heterochromatin assembly.
Short RNAs are well-known to silence TEs (transposable elements) through the RNAi (RNA interference) pathway, and Piwi-associated RNAs (piRNAs) play a crucial role in transposon silencing in the germline.
The rde-1 gene locus was first characterized in C. elegans mutants resistant to RNAi, and is a member of a highly conserved Piwi gene family that includes plant, Drosophila, and vertebrate homologs.
His and Carolyn Napoli's observations of pigment gene 'cosuppression' in Petunia flowers are examples of post transcriptional gene silencing that predated the discovery of RNA interference (RNAi) and contributed to the current understanding of the commonality of RNA-mediated gene silencing in eukaryotes.