Biotechnology and Its Applications Question 1
1. In RNAi, the genes are silenced using:
(a) ds - DNA
(b) ds - RNA
(c) Ss - DNA
(d) Ss - RNA
Show Answer
Answer : b
Hints & Solutions
(b) RNAi (RNA interference) is triggered by double stranded RNA in a wide variety of organisms including animals, plants and fungi. It involves silencing of a specific mRNA and therefore the expression of a gene by formation of a dsRNA molecule. The dsRNA is formed by binding of a complementary RNA (anti-sense RNA) molecule to original mRNA thereby preventing translation of the original mRNA. In 1998, the American scientists Andrew Fire and Craig Mello published their discovery of a mechanism that can degrade mRNA from a specific gene. This mechanism, RNA interference, is activated when RNA molecules occur as double-stranded pairs in the cell. Historically, RNAi was known by other names, including co-suppression, post-transcriptional gene silencing (PTGS), and quelling.
