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Characteristics of post‐transcriptional gene silencing
Author(s) -
Chicas Agustin,
Macino Giuseppe
Publication year - 2001
Publication title -
embo reports
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 4.584
H-Index - 184
eISSN - 1469-3178
pISSN - 1469-221X
DOI - 10.1093/embo-reports/kve231
Subject(s) - gene silencing , gene , biology , mechanism (biology) , function (biology) , genetics , regulation of gene expression , computational biology , microbiology and biotechnology , physics , quantum mechanics
A number of gene silencing phenomena that inactivate genes at the post‐transcriptional level have been identified. Due to its potential for studying gene function, post‐transcriptional gene silencing (PTGS) has become an intense area of research. In this review we describe the different means of inducing PTGS and discuss the possible biological roles of these artificially induced phenomena. We also discuss other features of PTGS such as the mechanism of mRNA degradation, the nature of the silencing signal and the mechanism of PTGS inhibition by viral proteins.