A simple and economical short-oligonucleotide-based approach to shRNA generation

RNAi (RNA interference) has become a popular means of knocking down a specific gene in vivo. The most common approach involves the use of chemically synthesized short interfering RNAs (siRNAs), which are relatively easy and fast to use, but which are costly and have only transient effects. These limitations can be overcome by using short hairpin RNA (shRNA) expression vectors. However, current methods of generating shRNA expression vectors require either the synthesis of long (50-70 nt) costly oligonucleotides or multi-step processes. To overcome this drawback, we have developed a one-step short-oligonucleotides- based method with preparation costs of only 15% of those of the conventional methods used to obtain essentially the same DNA fragment encoding shRNA. Sequences containing 19 bases homologous to target genes were synthesized as 17- and 31-nt DNA oligonucleotides and used to construct shRNA expression vectors. Using these plasmids, we were able to effectively silence target genes. Because our method relies on the one-step ligation of short oligonucleotides, it is simple, less error-prone, and economical.