Evidence that siRNAs function as guides, not primers, in the Drosophila and human RNAi pathways
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UMass Chan Affiliations
Department of Biochemistry and Molecular PharmacologyGraduate School of Biomedical Sciences
Document Type
Journal ArticlePublication Date
2002-11-01Keywords
Animals; Drosophila melanogaster; Endoribonucleases; *Gene Expression Regulation; Genes, Insect; Hela Cells; Humans; Phosphates; RNA Interference; RNA, Double-Stranded; RNA, Small Interfering; Ribonuclease IIILife Sciences
Medicine and Health Sciences
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Show full item recordAbstract
In Drosophila, two features of small interfering RNA (siRNA) structure--5' phosphates and 3' hydroxyls--are reported to be essential for RNA interference (RNAi). Here, we show that as in Drosophila, a 5' phosphate is required for siRNA function in human HeLa cells. In contrast, we find no evidence in flies or humans for a role in RNAi for the siRNA 3' hydroxyl group. Our in vitro data suggest that in both flies and mammals, each siRNA guides endonucleolytic cleavage of the target RNA at a single site. We conclude that the underlying mechanism of RNAi is conserved between flies and mammals and that RNA-dependent RNA polymerases are not required for RNAi in these organisms.Source
Mol Cell. 2002 Sep;10(3):537-48.
DOI
10.1016/S1097-2765(02)00651-2Permanent Link to this Item
http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.14038/32518PubMed ID
12408822Related Resources
ae974a485f413a2113503eed53cd6c53
10.1016/S1097-2765(02)00651-2