Elucidation of the Mechanism of Gene Silencing using Small Interferin RNA: DNA Hybrid Molecules

The recent discovery that short hybrid RNA:DNA molecules (siHybrids) induce long-term silencing of gene expression in mammalian cells conflicts with the currently hypothesized mechanisms explaining the action of small, interfering RNA (siRNA). As a first step to elucidating the mechanism for this effect, we set out to quantify the delivery of siHybrids and determine their cellular localization in mammalian cells. We then tracked the segregation of the siHybrids into daughter cells after cell division. Markers for siHybrid delivery were shown to enter cells with and without the use of a transfection agent. Furthermore, delivery without transfection agent only occurred after a delay of 2-4 hours, suggesting a degradation process occurring in the cell culture media. Therefore, we studied the effects of nucleases and backbone modifications on the stability of siHybrids under cell culture conditions