Gene expression by antisense RNA

Targeted techniques. A promising avenue of approach is the manipulation of plant gene expression by antisense RNA (Bird and Ray,... 

Compounds that bind sequence selectively to single-stranded RNA or double-stranded DNA have the potential to regulate gene expression by antisense or antigene mechanisms, respectively. The high affinity and sequence selectivity exhibited by PNA sparked much interest in the possible use of DNA in these applications. Furthermore, the biochemical stability of PNA, as it is not susceptible to cleavage by nuclease nor by protease enzymes, raised hopes that PNAs could be effective in vivo as well as in vitro. Experiments in which the PNAs were targeted either to RNA or to DNA are described in this section. 

Toulme, J-J. (1992). Artificial regulation of gene expression by complementary oligonucleotidesDan overview. In Antisense RNA andDNA. J.A.H.Murray, ed. (New York Wiley-Liss), pp. 175 194. 

By reversing the polarity of the DNA strands, the opposite strand will be transcribed and a complementary or antisense RNA will be produced. When antisense RNA was introduced either in vitro (27) or in vivo (28), the presence of the antisense RNA inhibited the expression of the normal RNA transcript produced by the resident gene. Suppression of RNA translation by antisense RNA may be due to the formation of an RNA heteroduplex between the two complementary RNA strands thus blocking the attachment of ribosomes. An example of this application in the context of the Adh example would be the construction of a chimeric gene containing the antisense sequence for Adh linked with a female-specific promoter. Thus, Adh activity would be eliminated from females and make them lethally sensitive to treatment with ethanol. 

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