RNAi技术研究进展

Advances on research of RNA interference

RNAi是由双链RNA引起的基因沉默现象,它通过降解具有同源序列的mRNA起作用,特殊设计的siRNA能使目的基因发生特异性沉默.目前,获得siRNA已经非常方便,导入方式最常用的是微注射.RNAi技术有编码区RNAi和启动子区RNAi两大类,均可以产生类似基因敲除的功能,在家蚕功能基因的研究中已经使用了这种方法.随着RNAi技术的不断进步,RNAi可广泛地应用到功能基因组学,药物靶点筛选,疾病治疗等方面.

RNAi is a phenomenon of gene silence induced by double-stranded RNA(dsRNA) that is homologous to target gene. Now it is easy to obtain small interference RNA(siRNA), and siRNA is (often)transmitted into organisms by microinjection. RNAi includes encoding region RNAi and promoter region RNAi, which can be used to investigate gene function by degrading a special mRNA target in a cell or organism and thus knocking out or knocking down the level of the encoded protein. They have been used to the analysis of silkworm gene function. With the development of the technique, RNAi can be widely used to genomic analysis, medication target screening, disease treatment and so on.