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Dicing and slicing
Author(s) -
Hammond Scott M.
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.2005.08.079
Subject(s) - dicer , argonaute , rna silencing , rna interference , trans acting sirna , rna induced silencing complex , gene silencing , rna induced transcriptional silencing , rna , small interfering rna , ribonuclease iii , biology , microbiology and biotechnology , ribonuclease , microrna , computational biology , genetics , gene
RNA interference (RNAi) is broadly defined as a gene silencing pathway that is triggered by double‐stranded RNA (dsRNA). Many variations have been described on this theme. The dsRNA trigger can be supplied exogenously, as an experimental tool, or can derive from the genome in the form of microRNAs. Gene silencing can be the result of nucleolytic degradation of the mRNA, or by translational suppression. At the heart of the pathway are two ribonuclease machines. The ribonuclease III enzyme Dicer initiates the RNAi pathway by generating the active short interfering RNA trigger. Silencing is effected by the RNA‐induced silencing complex and its RNaseH core enzyme Argonaute. This review describes the discovery of these machines and discusses future lines of work on this amazing biochemical pathway.