Biology 2581B Chapter Notes - Chapter 14.5: Craig Mello, Antisense Rna, Andrew Fire
19 Mar 2020
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Numerous small rna molecules (20-30 nucleotides long) have been discovered. They play an important role in transcription, translation, chromatin modification, gene expression, development, cancer, transposon suppression, and defense against foreign dna (ex viral dna) This discovery has influenced our understanding of how genes are regulated, and demonstrated the importance of dna sequences that do not encode proteins. Andrew fire, craig mello et al were inhibiting gene expression in c. elegans by injecting single- stranded rna molecules that were complementary to a gene"s dna sequence antisense rna. Antisense rna inhibits gene expression by binding to mrna sequences and inhibiting their. However, they found that even more potent gene silencing was triggered when double-stranded. Subsequent research revealed small rna molecules with important cellular functions in euks. There are three major classes: small interfering rnas (sirnas, micrornas (mirnas, piwi-interacting rnas (pirnas) An analogous group of small rnas with silencing functions called crispr rnas (crrnas) have been detected in prokaryotes.
