GSBS Dissertations and Theses
Publication Date
2007-09-17
Document Type
Doctoral Dissertation
Academic Program
Biochemistry and Molecular Pharmacology
Department
RNA Therapeutics Institute
First Thesis Advisor
Phillip D. Zamore, Ph.D.
Keywords
RNA Interference, MicroRNAs, RNA, Small Interfering, Drosophila Proteins, Methyltransferases, RNA-Induced Silencing Complex, RNA 3' End Processing, Plants, RNA Helicases, RNA-Binding Proteins
Abstract
In 1990, Richard Jorgensen’s lab initiated a study to test if they could create a more vivid color petunia (Napoli et al. 1990). Their plan was to transform plants with the chalcone synthase transgene––the predicted rate limiting factor in the production of purple pigmentation. Much to their surprise, the transgenic plants, as well as their progeny, displayed a great reduction in pigmentation. This loss of endogenous function was termed “cosuppression” and it was thought that sequence-specific repression resulted from over-expression of the homologous transgene sequence. In 1998, Andrew Fire and Craig Mello described a phenomenon in which double stranded RNA (dsRNA) can trigger silencing of cognate sequences when injected into the nematode, Caenorhabditis elegans (Fire et al. 1998). This data explained observations seen years earlier by other worm researchers, and suggested that repression of pigmentation in plants was caused by a dsRNA-intermediate (Guo and Kemphues 1995; Napoli et al. 1990). The phenomenon––which soon after was coined RNA interference (RNAi)––was soon discovered to be a post-transcriptional surveillance system in plants and animals to remove foreign nucleic acids.
Repository Citation
Matranga, CB. Understanding Assembly of AGO2 RISC: the RNAi enzyme: a Dissertation. (2007). University of Massachusetts Medical School. GSBS Dissertations and Theses. Paper 347. DOI: 10.13028/amen-ke39. https://escholarship.umassmed.edu/gsbs_diss/347
DOI
10.13028/amen-ke39
DOI Link
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