MicroRNA & RNA interference..please explain?

Question

I do not understand what exactly microRNA and RNA interference are. It seems too complicated in the text book...can someone explain this to me very simply.

Answer 1

Fire et al first made the discovery of RNAi back in 1997 doing some work on a nematode. RNAi basically a method of post transcriptional gene regulation that has shown huge potential for treating various infections and diseases. It uses short interferring RNA molecules (siRNA) bound to endonucleases to target specific mRNA sequences and cut them.

If you want a copy of a presentation i did recently, then drop me an e-mail.

microRNA's as the previous poster said, play a role in gene expression, although I will confess to not knowing much about them.

This is quite a good site: http://www.life.uiuc.edu/shapiro/rnaiapp...

Answer 2

microRNAs are very short (about 25 nucleotides) they are never translated into protein, instead they form stem-loop structures. They are thought to control the expression of other genes... they bind to complementary sequences in normal messenger RNA and target them for degradation.

RNAi basically utilizes this endogenous pathway... it is a technique for silencing the expression of target genes.

These are the very basics, but obviously the mechansms by which they occur are detailed. Ambion.com has a very good explanation of RNAi becaus ehtey sell a lot of products for doing it.

Answer 3

the two DNA and RNA are composed of repeating instruments of nucleotides. each nucleotide encompasses a sugar, a phosphate and a nucleic acid base. The sugar in DNA is deoxyribose. The sugar in RNA is ribose, the comparable as deoxyribose yet with one greater OH (oxygen-hydrogen atom mixture stated as a hydroxyl). it is the biggest distinction between DNA and RNA. yet another distinction is that RNA molecules could have a lots greater suitable form of nucleic acid bases. DNA has generally in basic terms 4 diverse bases with some greater specifically circumstances. the version in those bases (between DNA and RNA) facilitates RNA molecules to assume a great form of shapes and additionally many diverse purposes. DNA, on the different hand, serves as a collection of instructions and that's approximately all (yet it is genuinely mandatory!). ---DrPam That sounds like a candy and short answer to me....wish this facilitates:)