CGC Bibliography Paper 5077

RNA helicase MUT-14-dependent gene silencing triggered in C. elegans by short antisense RNAs.

Tijsterman M, Ketting RF, Okihara KL, Sijen T, Plasterk RHA

Medline:

11809977

Citation:

Science 295: 694-697 2002

Type:

ARTICLE

Genes:

dcr-1 mut-7 mut-14 pos-1 rde-1 rde-4 unc-22

Abstract:

Posttranscriptional gene silencing in Caenorhabditis elegans results from exposure to double-stranded RNA (dsRNA), a phenomenon designated as RNA interference (RNAi), or from co-suppression, in which transgenic DNA leads to silencing of both the transgene and the endogenous gene. Here we show that single-stranded RNA oligomers of antisense polarity can also be potent inducers of gene silencing. As is the case for co-suppression, antisense RNAs act independently of the RNAi genes rde-1 and rde-4 but require the mutator/RNAi gene mut-7 and a putative DEAD box RNA helicase, mut-14. Our data favor the hypothesis that gene silencing is accomplished by RNA primer extension using the mRNA as template, leading to dsRNA that is