RNA interference

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RNA interference

RNA interference (RNAi) is a biological process in which RNA molecules inhibit gene expression or translation, by neutralizing targeted mRNA molecules. Historically, RNAi was known by other names, including co-suppression, post-transcriptional gene silencing (PTGS), and quelling. The detailed study of each of these seemingly different processes elucidated that the identity of these phenomena were all actually RNAi. Andrew Fire and Craig C. Mello shared the 2006 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for their work on RNA interference in the nematode worm Caenorhabditis elegans, which they published in 1998.

Pronunciation

RNA interference is pronounced as /ɑːrɛnˈeɪ ɪntəˈfɪərəns/.

Etymology

The term "RNA interference" was coined by researchers Andrew Fire and Craig C. Mello in 1998 to describe a regulatory pathway in Caenorhabditis elegans that uses small non-coding RNA molecules to silence genes.

Related Terms

  • Gene expression: The process by which information from a gene is used in the synthesis of a functional gene product.
  • Translation (biology): The process in which ribosomes in the cytoplasm or ER synthesize proteins after the process of transcription of DNA to RNA in the cell's nucleus.
  • mRNA: Messenger RNA (mRNA) is a single-stranded RNA molecule that is complementary to one of the DNA strands of a gene.
  • Caenorhabditis elegans: A free-living, transparent nematode, about 1 mm in length, which lives in temperate soil environments.
  • Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine: One of the six Nobel Prizes established by the will of inventor Alfred Nobel in 1895, awarded annually (without interruption) by the Nobel Assembly at the Karolinska Institute in Stockholm, Sweden.

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