Department of Biological Sciences, Florida State University, Tallahassee, 32306-4295, USA.
Brief Funct Genomics. 2010 Mar;9(2):111-7. doi: 10.1093/bfgp/elp052. Epub 2010 Jan 6.
RNAi refers to several different types of gene silencing mediated by small, dsRNA molecules. Over the course of 20 years, the scientific understanding of RNAi has developed from the initial observation of unexpected expression patterns to a sophisticated understanding of a multi-faceted, evolutionarily conserved network of mechanisms that regulate gene expression in many organisms. It has also been developed as a genetic tool that can be exploited in a wide range of species. Because transgene-induced RNAi has been effective at silencing one or more genes in a wide range of plants, this technology also bears potential as a powerful functional genomics tool across the plant kingdom. Transgene-induced RNAi has indeed been shown to be an effective mechanism for silencing many genes in many organisms, but the results from multiple projects which attempted to exploit RNAi on a genome-wide scale suggest that there is a great deal of variation in the silencing efficacy between transgenic events, silencing targets and silencing-induced phenotype. The results from these projects indicate several important variables that should be considered in experimental design prior to the initiation of functional genomics efforts based on RNAi silencing. In recent years, alternative strategies have been developed for targeted gene silencing, and a combination of approaches may also enhance the use of targeted gene silencing for functional genomics.
RNAi 是指由小 dsRNA 分子介导的几种不同类型的基因沉默。在 20 年的时间里，人们对 RNAi 的科学认识已经从最初对意外表达模式的观察发展为对一种多方面的、进化上保守的机制网络的深入理解，该网络调节着许多生物体中的基因表达。它也已被开发为一种遗传工具，可以在许多物种中得到利用。由于转基因诱导的 RNAi 能够有效地沉默多种植物中的一个或多个基因，因此该技术也有可能成为植物界中一种强大的功能基因组学工具。转基因诱导的 RNAi 确实已被证明是一种有效机制，可以沉默许多生物体中的许多基因，但多个试图在全基因组范围内利用 RNAi 的项目的结果表明，转基因事件、沉默靶标和沉默诱导表型之间的沉默效果存在很大差异。这些项目的结果表明，在基于 RNAi 沉默的功能基因组学研究之前，在实验设计中应该考虑几个重要的变量。近年来，已经开发出了针对特定基因沉默的替代策略，并且多种方法的结合也可能增强针对特定基因沉默在功能基因组学中的应用。
