X-Nico

unusual facts about Gene silencing


Gene silencing

Sidney Altman and Thomas Cech first discovered catalytic RNA molecules, RNase P and group II intron ribozymes, in 1989 and won the Nobel Prize for their discovery.



see also

David Baulcombe

In 1998 Craig Mello and Andrew Fire reported a potent gene silencing effect after injecting double stranded RNA into C. elegans.

Heterochromatin

In the fission yeast Schizosaccharomyces pombe two RNAi complexes, the RNAi-induced transcriptional gene silencing (RITS) complex and the RNA-directed RNA polymerase complex (RDRC), are part of an RNAi machinery involved in the initiation, propagation and maintenance of heterochromatin assembly.

Richard A. Jorgensen

His and Carolyn Napoli's observations of pigment gene 'cosuppression' in Petunia flowers are examples of post transcriptional gene silencing that predated the discovery of RNA interference (RNAi) and contributed to the current understanding of the commonality of RNA-mediated gene silencing in eukaryotes.

Thomas Tuschl

In 2006, two of Tuschl's fellow researchers, Andrew Z. Fire and Craig C. Mello, received the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for their discovery of "RNA interference – gene silencing by double-stranded RNA".

Transposon silencing

Piwi-interacting RNA (piRNA), the largest class of the small RNAs, are between 26 and 31 nucleotides in length and function through interactions with piwi proteins from the Argonaute protein family (gene silencing proteins).