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Updated: May 7, 2026

Enhanced Northern Blot Detection of Small RNA Species in Drosophila Melanogaster
Published on: August 21, 2014
Endogenous small interfering RNAs in animals
Katsutomo Okamura1, Eric C Lai
1Department of Developmental Biology, Sloan-Kettering Institute, 521 Rockefeller Research Laboratories, New York, New York 10065, USA.
Abstract:
Until recently, only nematodes among animals had a well-defined endogenous small interfering RNA (endo-siRNA) pathway. This has changed dramatically with the recent discovery of diverse intramolecular and intermolecular substrates that generate endo-siRNAs in Drosophila melanogaster and mice. These findings suggest broad and possibly conserved roles for endogenous RNA interference in regulating host-gene expression and transposable element transcripts. They also raise many questions regarding the biogenesis and function of small regulatory RNAs in animals.
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