Feinberg Evan H, Hunter Craig P
Department of Molecular and Cellular Biology, Harvard University, 16 Divinity Avenue, Cambridge, MA 02138, USA.
Science. 2003 Sep 12;301(5639):1545-7. doi: 10.1126/science.1087117.
RNA interference (RNAi) spreads systemically in plants and nematodes to silence gene expression distant from the site of initiation. We previously identified a gene, sid-1, essential for systemic but not cell-autonomous RNAi in Caenorhabditis elegans. Here, we demonstrate that SID-1 is a multispan transmembrane protein that sensitizes Drosophila cells to soaking RNAi with a potency that is dependent on double-stranded RNA (dsRNA) length. Further analyses revealed that SID-1 enables passive cellular uptake of dsRNA. These data indicate that systemic RNAi in C. elegans involves SID-1-mediated intercellular transport of dsRNA.
RNA干扰（RNAi）在植物和线虫中可系统性传播，从而使远离起始位点的基因表达沉默。我们之前在秀丽隐杆线虫中鉴定出一个基因sid-1，它对于系统性RNAi是必需的，但对细胞自主RNAi并非必需。在此，我们证明SID-1是一种多跨膜蛋白，它能使果蝇细胞对浸泡式RNAi敏感，其效力取决于双链RNA（dsRNA）的长度。进一步分析表明，SID-1能使细胞被动摄取dsRNA。这些数据表明，秀丽隐杆线虫中的系统性RNAi涉及SID-1介导的dsRNA细胞间转运。
