RNA interference

Hannon, Gregory J.

Cold Spring Harbour Laboratory, 1 Bungtown Road Cold Spring Harbour, New York 11724, USA (e-mail: [email protected])

Nature 418(6894):p 244-251, July 11, 2002.

A conserved biological response to double-stranded RNA, known variously as RNA interference (RNAi) or post-transcriptional gene silencing, mediates resistance to both endogenous parasitic and exogenous pathogenic nucleic acids, and regulates the expression of protein-coding genes. RNAi has been cultivated as a means to manipulate gene expression experimentally and to probe gene function on a whole-genome scale.