Global analysis of siRNA-mediated transcriptional gene silencing

The RNAi machinery is not only involved with post-transcriptional degradation of messenger RNAs, but also used for targeting of chromatin changes associated with transcriptional silencing. Two recent papers determine the global patterns of gene expression and chromatin modifications produced by the RNAi machinery in fission yeast.(9, 10) The major sites include the outer centromere repeats, the mating-type locus and subtelomeric regions. By comparison, studies of Arabidopsis heterochromatin also implicate transposons as a major target for silencing. Analyses of siRNA libraries from Drosophila, nematodes and Arabidopsis indicate that major repeats at centromeres, telomeres and transposable elements are likely targets of RNAi. Also, intergenic regions are implicated as targets in Arabidopsis.