3. Posttranscriptional gene silencing
Promoters active
Gene hypermethylated
in coding region
Purpose - Viral
immunity?
S. Grant (1999)
Transcriptional gene silencing (TGS) Posttranscriptional gene silencing (PTGS)
This has recently been termed “RNAi”
Promoters silenced
Genes hypermethylated
in promoter region
Purpose - Viral
immunity?
4. Other names of post-transcriptional gene
silencing (PTGS) :
– gene silencing
– RNA silencing
– RNA interference
– In certain fungi: quelling
RNAi can spread throughout certain organisms
(C. elegans, plants).
5. Short history of post-transcriptional gene
silencing
Definition: the ability of exogenous double-stranded
RNA (dsRNA) to suppress the expression of the gene
which corresponds to the dsRNA sequence.
1990 Jorgensen :
Introduction of transgenes homologous to
endogenous genes often resulted in plants with both
genes suppressed!
Called Co-suppression
Resulted in degradation of the endogenous and the
transgene mRNA
6. 1995 Guo and Kemphues:
-injection of either antisense or sense RNAs in the
germline of C. elegans was equally effective at
silencing homologous target genes
1998 Mello and Fire:
-extension of above experiments, combination of
sense and antisense RNA (= dsRNA) was 10
times more effective than single strand RNA
Contd….
7. What is RNA interference /PTGS?
dsRNA needs to be directed against an exon, not an
intron in order to be effective
homology of the dsRNA and the target gene/mRNA is
required
targeted mRNA is lost (degraded) after RNAi
the effect is non-stoichiometric; small amounts of
dsRNA can wipe out an excess of mRNA (pointing to
an enzymatic mechanism)
ssRNA does not work as well as dsRNA
8. double-stranded RNAs are produced by:
– transcription of inverted repeats
– viral replication
– transcription of RNA by RNA-dependent RNA-
polymerases (RdRP)
double-stranded RNA triggers cleavage of
homologous mRNA
PTGS-defective plants are more sensitive to infection
by RNA viruses
in RNAi defective nematodes, transposons are much
more active
13. Dicer
Double-stranded RNA triggers processed into siRNAs
by enzyme RNAseIII family, specifically the Dicer family
Processive enzyme - no larger intermediates.
Dicer family proteins are ATP-dependent nucleases.
These proteins contain an amino-terminal helicase
domain, dual RNAseIII domains in the carboxy-
terminal segment, and dsRNA-binding motifs.
14. Contd…..
They can also contain a PAZ domain, which is thought
to be important for protein-protein interaction.
Dicer homologs exist in many organisms including
C. elegans, Drosphila, yeast and humans
Loss of dicer: loss of silencing, processing in vitro
Developmental consequence in Drosophila and
C. elegans
16. RISC complex
RISC is a large (~500-kDa) RNA-multiprotein complex, which
triggers mRNA degradation in response to siRNA
some components have been defined by genetics, but function
is unknown, e.g.
– unwinding of double-stranded siRNA (Helicase !?)
– ribonuclease component cleaves mRNA (Nuclease !?)
– amplification of silencing signal (RNA-dependent RNA
polymerase !?)
cleaved mRNA is degraded by cellular exonucleases
17. Different classes of small RNA
molecules
During dsRNA cleavage, different RNA classes
are produced:
– siRNA
– miRNA
18. siRNAs
Small interfering RNAs that have an integral role in
the phenomenon of RNA interference(RNAi),
a form of post-transcriptional gene silencing
RNAi: 21-25 nt fragments, which bind to the
complementary portion of the target mRNA
and tag it for degradation
A single base pair difference between the siRNA
template and the target mRNA is enough to block
the process.
19. miRNAs/stRNAs
micro/small temporal RNAs
derive from ~70 nt ssRNA (single-stranded RNA),
which forms a stemloop; processed to 22nt RNAs
found in:
– Drosophila, C. elegans, HeLa cells
genes
– Lin-4, Let-7
stRNAs do not trigger mRNA degradation
20. Contd….
role: the temporal regulation of C. elegans
development, preventing translation of their target
mRNAs by binding to the target’s complementary 3’
untranslated regions(UTRs)
conservation: 15% of these miRNAs were conserved
with 1-2 mismatches across worm, fly, and
mammalian genomes
expression pattern: varies; some are expressed in all
cells and at all developmental stages and others have
a more restricted spatial and temporal expression
23. Why is PTGS important?
Most widely held view is that RNAi evolved to
protect the genome from viruses (or other invading
DNAs or RNAs)
Recently, very small (micro) RNAs have been
discovered in several eukaryotes that regulate
developmentally other large RNAs
–May be a new use for the RNAi mechanism
besides defense
24. Recent applications of RNAi
Modulation of HIV-1 replication by RNA interference.
Hannon(2002).
Potent and specific inhibition of human immunodeficiency
virus type 1 replication by RNA interference.
An et al.(1999)
Selective silencing of viral gene expression in HPV-positive
human cervical carcinoma cells treated with siRNA, a primer
of RNA interference.
Jung et al. 2002.
RNA interference in adult mice.
Mccaffrey et al.2002
Successful inactivation of endogenous Oct-3/4 and c-mos
genes in mouse pre implantation embryos and oocytes using
short interfering RNAs.
Le Bon et al.2002
25. Possible future improvements of RNAi
applications
Already developed:
in vitro synthesis of siRNAs using T7 RNA Polymerase
U6 RNA promoter based plasmids
Digestion of longer dsRNA by E. coli Rnase III
Potentially useful:
creation of siRNA vectors with resistances cassettes
establishment of an inducible siRNA system
establishment of retroviral siRNA vectors (higher efficiencies,
26. Conclusions
begun in worms, flies, and plants - as an accidental
observation.
general applications in mammalian cells.
probably much more common than appreciated
before:
– it was recently discovered that small RNAs
correspond to centromer heterochromatin repeats
– RNAi regulates heterochromatic silencing
Faster identification of gene function
27. Powerful for analyzing unknown genes in
sequence genomes.
efforts are being undertaken to target every
human gene via miRNAs
Gene therapy: down-regulation of certain
genes/mutated alleles
Cancer treatments
– knock-out of genes required for cell proliferation
– knock-out of genes encoding key structural
proteins
Agriculture
Contd…..
