RNA INTERFERENCE (RNAi)- Discovery,Mechanism
CONCEPT OF RNA INTERFERENCE (RNAi): RNA interference (RNAi) is one of the most exciting and fascinating discoveries of the past decade in functional genomics. RNAi is rapidly becoming an important method for analyzing gene functions in eukaryotes and holds promise for the development of therapeutic gene silencing. RNA interference is a novel gene regulatory mechanism that limits the transcript level by either suppressing transcription (TGS) or by activating a sequence- specific RNA degradation process [PTGS/RNA interference (RNAi)] . RNA interference (RNAi) is a post-transcriptional process triggered by the introduction of double-stranded RNA (dsRNA) which leads to gene silencing in a sequence-specific manner. The first evidence that dsRNA could achieve efficient gene silencing through RNAi came from studies on the nematode Caenorhabditis elegans. Further analysis in the fruit fly Drosophila melanogaster have contributed greatly toward understanding the biochemical nature of the RNAi p...