RNA interference (RNAi) is a biological process in which RNA
molecules inhibit gene expression, typically by causing the destruction of
specific messenger RNA (mRNA) molecules. Andrew Fire, an American biologist and
professor of pathology and of genetics at the Stanford University School of
Medicine and Craig C. Mello, another American biologist and professor of
molecular medicine at the University of Massachusetts Medical School in
Massachusetts firstly discovered RNA Interference. They published their work on
RNAi in 1998, which won them the 2006 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine.
There
are two types of small ribonucleic acid (RNA) molecules: microRNA (miRNA) and small
interfering RNA (siRNA). Those two are central to RNA interference. RNAs are
the direct products of genes, and these small RNAs can bind to other specific mRNA
molecules and to increase or decrease their activity.
RNAi is
a valuable research tool, both in cell culture and in living organisms, because
synthetic double-stranded RNA (dsRNA) introduced into cells can selectively and
robustly induce suppression of specific genes of interest. The RNAi pathway is
found in many eukaryotes including animals and is initiated by the enzyme
Dicer, which cleaves long dsRNA molecules into short double stranded fragments
of ~20 nucleotide siRNAs. Each siRNA is unwound into two single-stranded RNAs,
respectively the passenger strand and the guide strand.
There are three major biological functions of
RNA interference:
1. Immunity
RNA
interference is a vital part of the immune response to viruses and other
foreign genetic material, especially in plants where it may also prevent the
self-propagation of transposons.
2. Downregulation of
genes
Endogenously
expressed miRNAs, including both intronic and intergenic miRNAs, are most
important in translational repression and in the regulation of development.
miRNA activity is particularly wide-ranging and regulates entire gene networks
during development by modulating the expression of key regulatory genes.
3. Upregulation of genes
RNA
sequences (siRNA and miRNA) that are complementary to parts of a promoter can
increase gene transcription, a phenomenon dubbed RNA activation.
About us
Creative
Biogene is one of the world’s leading suppliers of biotechnological and
biochemical products and services. We provide leading functional genomics
technologies including RNAi vector and RNAi service for gene silencing and cutting-edge systems
for gene editing and gene knockout. All RNAi research projects carried out by
Creative Biogene are custom-designed to address each client's specific
experimental, strategic and budgetary guidelines, while always meeting the
highest scientific standards in the field.
No comments:
Post a Comment