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Minerva Biotecnologica 2010 March;22(1):29-37

Copyright © 2010 EDIZIONI MINERVA MEDICA

lingua: Inglese

Small silencing RNAs in Chlamydomonas reinhardtii

Longfei S., Zhangli H.

Institute of Ecology and Environment, College of Life Sciences, Shenzhen University, Shenzhen, China

The defining features of small silencing RNAs are their short length (~20-30 nucleotides), and their association with members of the Argonaute family of proteins. A large number of small RNA classes have been identified, including small interfering RNAs (siRNAs) and microRNAs (miRNAs), which are reported in Chlamydo-monas reinhardtii. In the past 10 years, 35 different genes in various Chlamydomonas strains have been reported to be downregulated by antisence or inverted repeat approaches. The discovery of Chlamydomonas reinhardtii miRNAs reveals the existence of multiple RNAi pathways in a unicellular eukaryotic organism. The further research show amiRNAs system will be very effective tools for high-throughput gene function analysis in Chlamydomonas. This article provides an overview of small silencing RNAs in Chlamydomonas reinhardtii and highlight the mechanisms and design of amiRNAs as a genetic tool to dissect the function of genes and application of miRNAs/ amiRNAs in Chlamydomonas reinhardtii.