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Small RNA asymmetry in RNAi: Function in RISC assembly and gene regulation
Author(s) -
Hutvagner Gyorgy
Publication year - 2005
Publication title -
febs letters
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.593
H-Index - 257
eISSN - 1873-3468
pISSN - 0014-5793
DOI - 10.1016/j.febslet.2005.08.071
Subject(s) - rna interference , rna induced silencing complex , rna silencing , effector , gene silencing , biology , small interfering rna , trans acting sirna , argonaute , microrna , microbiology and biotechnology , rna , gene , genetics , function (biology) , computational biology
RNAi is a conserved gene‐specific regulatory mechanism, which silences target gene expression transcriptionally and post‐transcriptionally. The RNAi machinery converts the sequence specific information of a long double stranded RNAs (dsRNAs) into small 21–22 nt long dsRNAs (siRNAs, miRNAs) which assemble into an effector complex, the RNA induced silencing complex (RISC). RISC assembly is asymmetric; one strand of an siRNA or a miRNA preferentially incorporates into the RNA–protein complex. Here, I review the rules of the asymmetric RISC formation and discuss their possible regulatory function in several steps in RNAi.