Abstract: RNA silencing is a phenomenon of homologous RNA degradation induced by dsRNA，which works as a natural virus-resistant mechanism in plant. However，in the long co-evolution progress，a number of inhibitory proteins coded by virus in the process of siRNA or miRNA silencing could antagonize and inhibit this mechanism. The discovery，process and inhibition of RNA silencing，as well as the research advances in plant virus-resistance induced by RNA silencing were reviewed. Several plant disease-resistance mechanism were discussed，inclulding the resistance of RNA viruses and DNA viruses mediated by RNA silencing and the virus resistance mediated by virus transgenes. Meanwhile，the problems existed in the research were properly analyzed，and the key points and the research directions of future prospect were discussed.

Key words: RNA silencing, dsRNA, plant virus resistantance, genetic engineering