Related Experiment Video
Updated: Aug 14, 2026

Rearing and Double-stranded RNA-mediated Gene Knockdown in the Hide Beetle, Dermestes maculatus
Published on: December 28, 2016
Gene silencing: double-stranded RNA mediated mRNA degradation and gene inactivation
1North Carolina State University, Forest Biotechnology Group, Raleigh 27695, USA. wtang@unity.ncsu.edu
Abstract:
The recent development of gene transfer approaches in plants and animals has revealed that transgene can undergo silencing after integration in the genome. Host genes can also be silenced as a consequence of the presence of a homologous transgene. More and more investigations have demonstrated that double-stranded RNA can silence genes by triggering degradation of homologous RNA in the cytoplasm and by directing methylation of homologous nuclear DNA sequences. Analyses of Arabidopsis mutants and plant viral suppressors of silencing are unraveling RNA-silencing mechanisms and are assessing the role of methylation in transcriptional and posttranscriptional gene silencing. This review will focus on double-stranded RNA mediated mRNA degradation and gene inactivation in plants.
Related Concept Videos
MicroRNAs
RNA Interference
This process occurs naturally in cells, often through the activity of genomically-encoded microRNAs. Researchers can take advantage of this mechanism by introducing synthetic RNAs to deactivate specific genes for research or therapeutic purposes. For example, RNAi could be used...
RNA Interference
This process occurs naturally in cells, often through the activity of genomically-encoded microRNAs. Researchers can take advantage of this mechanism by introducing synthetic RNAs to deactivate specific genes for research or therapeutic purposes. For example, RNAi could be used...
MicroRNAs
Experimental RNAi
MicroRNAs

