Lingel Andreas, Sattler Michael
EMBL Heidelberg, Meyerhofstrasse 1, 69117 Heidelberg, Germany.
Curr Opin Struct Biol. 2005 Feb;15(1):107-15. doi: 10.1016/j.sbi.2005.01.010.
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 3' overhangs and 5' 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.
由RNA干扰（RNAi）介导的基因沉默依赖于小干扰RNA（siRNA）和微小RNA（miRNA）。这些RNA具有独特的特征，即确定的19 - 21个碱基对的长度，以及特征性的两核苷酸单链3'端突出和5'单磷酸基团。siRNA和miRNA的这些分子特征是由RNase III酶产生的，而RNase III酶是双链RNA诱导基因沉默的一个标志。最近对RNAi途径成分的结构研究，包括PAZ、Piwi和RNase III结构域，以及全长AGO蛋白和病毒p19蛋白，揭示了RNAi途径中对siRNA和miRNA特征进行序列非依赖性识别的独特且新颖的模式。
