Potent and specific genetic interference by double-stranded RNA in Caenorhabditis elegans - Essay Example

Potent and Specific Genetic Interference by Double-Stranded RNA in Caenorhabditis Elegans One of the significant functions of RNA is to impede the functions of endogenous genes. There has to be certain requirements for the interference. In particular, the process requires the delivery and structure of the RNA as its requisites. The interference process has two important features: (1) the effects that will enable the process to continue for many generations and (2) enough RNA antisense and sense preparations to trigger interference (Fire et al., 807). Table 1 For instance, the above observation is crucial in understanding the interference in that purified sense and antisense RNAs has led to 742-nucleotide division of unc-22.

Notably, this reflects limited interference activity. To achieve a commendable effect, there should be a high dose of the injected RNA. In an endogenous activity, an antisense-sense mixture has the capacity to produce interference that is very effective. In the development of a dsRNA (double-stranded RNA), the evident feature is the potency of the antisense-sense mixture in the interfering activity. Figure 1 Placing the double-stranded structure in cis has no effect on the potent activity of the interference.

That is, double-strand sequences that are positioned on level 3 or 5 of a single-strand segment are not able to trigger interference. Using unc-54, fem-1 and hlh-1 to assess the target uniqueness of the effects of dsRNA, the results include (1) progeny broods with a null-mutant phenotype are produced and (2) the single RNA threads with no important interference. Figure 2 At cellular levels, the effects of interference of dsRNA can also be examined. Fractions of the Derived fluorescent protein (GFP) decrease when they are injected with dsRNA and the same is explained by in the figure above and below.

Figure 3 Works CitedFire, Andrew, et al. "Potent and specific genetic interference by double-stranded RNA in Caenorhabditis elegans." nature 391.6669 (1998): 806-811.