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Comparative Study
. 2001 Jul;6(7):297-301.
doi: 10.1016/s1360-1385(01)01989-6.

Role of short RNAs in gene silencing

P M Waterhouse  1 , M B Wang, E J Finnegan
Affiliations
Comparative Study

Role of short RNAs in gene silencing

P M Waterhouse et al. Trends Plant Sci. 2001 Jul.

Abstract

Recent research has revealed the existence of an elegant defence mechanism in plants and lower eukaryotes. The mechanism, known in plants as post-transcriptional gene silencing, works through sequence-specific degradation of RNA. It appears to be directed by double-stranded RNA, associated with the production of short 21-25 nt RNAs, and spread through the plant by a diffusible signal. The short RNAs are implicated as the guides for both a nuclease complex that degrades the mRNA and a methyltransferase complex that methylates the DNA of silenced genes. It has also been suggested that these short RNAs might be the mobile silencing signal, a suggestion that has been challenged recently.

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