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RNA interference

Abstract

A conserved biological response to double-stranded RNA, known variously as RNA interference (RNAi) or post-transcriptional gene silencing, mediates resistance to both endogenous parasitic and exogenous pathogenic nucleic acids, and regulates the expression of protein-coding genes. RNAi has been cultivated as a means to manipulate gene expression experimentally and to probe gene function on a whole-genome scale.

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Figure 1: Double-stranded RNA can be introduced experimentally to silence target genes of interest.
Figure 2: Dicer and RISC (RNA-induced silencing complex).
Figure 3: Transitive RNAi.
Figure 4: Small interfering RNAs versus small temporal RNAs.
Figure 5: A model for the mechanism of RNAi.

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Acknowledgements

I thank members of the Hannon laboratory for critical reading of the manuscript; J. Duffy for help in preparation of the figures; D. Baulcombe, M. Tijsterman, R. Carthew and S. Prasanth for providing the images for Fig. 1; fellow investigators who granted permission to discuss unpublished observations; and C. Mello and C. Sherr for providing motive and opportunity, respectively, for our early work on RNAi. G.J.H. is a Rita Allen Foundation scholar and is supported by an Innovator Award from the U.S. Army Breast Cancer Research Program. This work was supported in part by a grant from the NIH.

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Correspondence to Gregory J. Hannon.

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Hannon, G. RNA interference. Nature 418, 244–251 (2002). https://doi.org/10.1038/418244a

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