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Highly specific gene silencing by artificial microRNAs in the unicellular alga Chlamydomonas reinhardtii
Author(s) -
Molnar Attila,
Bassett Andrew,
Thuenemann Eva,
Schwach Frank,
Karkare Shantanu,
Ossowski Stephan,
Weigel Detlef,
Baulcombe David
Publication year - 2009
Publication title -
the plant journal
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 3.058
H-Index - 269
eISSN - 1365-313X
pISSN - 0960-7412
DOI - 10.1111/j.1365-313x.2008.03767.x
Subject(s) - chlamydomonas reinhardtii , gene silencing , biology , multicellular organism , microrna , chlamydomonas , gene , microbiology and biotechnology , argonaute , trans acting sirna , oligonucleotide , computational biology , gene expression , rna , rna interference , genetics , non coding rna , mutant
Summary MicroRNAs (miRNAs) are small RNAs, 21 to 22 nucleotides long, with important regulatory roles. They are processed from longer RNA molecules with imperfectly matched foldback regions and they function in modulating the stability and translation of mRNA. Recently, we and others have demonstrated that the unicellular alga Chlamydomonas reinhardtii , like diverse multicellular organisms, contains miRNAs. These RNAs resemble the miRNAs of land plants in that they direct site‐specific cleavage of target mRNA with miRNA‐complementary motifs and, presumably, act as regulatory molecules in growth and development. Utilizing these findings we have developed a novel artificial miRNA system based on ligation of DNA oligonucleotides that can be used for specific high‐throughput gene silencing in green algae.