Department of Biology, Faculty of Basic Sciences, Shahr-e-kord University, Shahr-e-kord, Iran.
In Vitro Cell Dev Biol Anim. 2010 Dec;46(10):834-40. doi: 10.1007/s11626-010-9347-6. Epub 2010 Sep 25.
RNA interference (RNAi) can induce gene silencing via two pathways: post-transcriptional gene silencing (PTGS) and transcriptional gene silencing (TGS). The mediators of gene inactivation in both pathways are 21-bp small interfering RNAs (siRNAs) generated from longer double-stranded RNA (dsRNA). PTGS involves siRNA-mediated targeting and degradation of mRNA. However, siRNAs induce TGS via DNA methylation at the targeted promoter. Synthetic siRNAs can induce loss of gene activity comparable to long dsRNA. The limitation of this method is that the transfected synthetic siRNA works for only a few days. In this study, we tested the RNAi response to siRNA (PTGS pathway) by using a plasmid containing an enhanced green fluorescent protein (eGFP) gene as a target as well as a plasmid creates siRNA transcript, in a form of a hairpin, against eGFP gene. To investigate TGS pathway via RNAi, we also used a plasmid creates hairpin siRNA transcript against pgk-1 promoter. The data presented here indicated long-lasting inhibition in expression of eGFP and puromycin genes, both under the control of the murine Pgk-1 promoter. However, Southern blot analysis showed no methylation in pgk-1 promoter.
RNA 干扰 (RNAi) 可以通过两种途径诱导基因沉默:转录后基因沉默 (PTGS) 和转录基因沉默 (TGS)。这两种途径中基因失活的介质都是由更长的双链 RNA (dsRNA) 产生的 21 个碱基对的小干扰 RNA (siRNA)。PTGS 涉及 siRNA 介导的靶向和 mRNA 的降解。然而,siRNA 通过靶向启动子的 DNA 甲基化诱导 TGS。合成 siRNA 可以诱导与长 dsRNA 相当的基因活性丧失。这种方法的局限性在于转染的合成 siRNA 只能持续几天。在这项研究中,我们使用含有增强型绿色荧光蛋白 (eGFP) 基因作为靶标的质粒以及创建针对 eGFP 基因的发夹状 siRNA 转录本的质粒来测试 siRNA 的 RNAi 反应 (PTGS 途径)。为了研究通过 RNAi 的 TGS 途径,我们还使用了创建针对 pgk-1 启动子的发夹状 siRNA 转录本的质粒。这里呈现的数据表明,在受小鼠 Pgk-1 启动子控制的情况下,eGFP 和嘌呤霉素基因的表达都受到了持久的抑制。然而,Southern 印迹分析显示 pgk-1 启动子没有甲基化。