Article ID | Journal | Published Year | Pages | File Type |
---|---|---|---|---|
10822890 | Current Opinion in Structural Biology | 2005 | 9 Pages |
Abstract
Gene silencing mediated by RNA interference (RNAi) depends on short interfering RNAs (siRNAs) and micro RNAs (miRNAs). These RNAs have unique features, namely a defined size of 19-21 base pairs, and characteristic two-nucleotide single-stranded 3â² overhangs and 5â² monophosphate groups. These molecular features of siRNAs and miRNAs are produced by RNase III enzymes, which are a hallmark of gene silencing induced by double-stranded RNA. Recent structural studies of components of the RNAi pathway, including PAZ, Piwi and RNase III domains, as well as full-length Argonaute and viral p19 proteins, have revealed distinct and novel modes of sequence-independent recognition of the characteristic features of siRNAs and miRNAs in the RNAi pathway.
Keywords
Related Topics
Life Sciences
Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology
Biochemistry
Authors
Andreas Lingel, Michael Sattler,