小兵立大功－微小核醣核酸與小干擾核醣核酸

Small is the New Big: The Emerging of MicroRNA and Small Interfering RNA

詹世鵬(Shih-Peng Chan)

《化學》 68卷4期 (2010/12) Pp. 303-312

https://doi.org/10.6623/chem.2010029

摘要

微小核醣核酸 (microRNA)與小干擾核醣核酸(small interfering RNA)是近年來所發現的重要小型核醣核酸類型，長度約為21個核苷酸，可以調控許多基因的表現。微小核醣核酸的生合成包含了兩個第三型核醣核酸內切酶Drosha與Dicer的作用，並和Argonaute蛋白質組成核醣核酸沉默複合體(RNA-induced silencing complex)抑制目標訊息核醣核酸的轉譯作用或引發其降解。微小核醣核酸可調控多數動物基因，其異常表現則可能導致癌症的產生。小干擾核醣核酸由外來的長段雙股核醣核酸經Dicer切割而來，亦可組成核醣核酸沉默複合體引發目標核醣核酸的降解。小干擾核醣核酸可被廣泛用在現代生物學實驗設計中去阻斷特定基因表現，將來亦可能被應用在醫學基因治療方法上。

關鍵字

微小核醣核酸 ； 小干擾核醣核酸

並列摘要

MicroRNAs (miRNAs) and small interfering RNAs (siRNAs) are recently found classes of small, ~21-nucleotides-long, non-coding RNAs that regulate gene expression at the posttranscriptional level. Animal miRNAs are processed by type III endonucleases Drosha and Dicer and assemble into RNA-induced silencing complexes (RISCs) with Argonaute proteins, which trigger translational repression or degradation of target messenger RNAs (mRNAs). MiRNAs regulate a broad range of gene expression and their dysfunction is often linked to cancers. SiRNAs usually originate from exogenous long double-stranded RNAs that are cleaved by Dicer. RISCs carrying siRNAs trigger cleavage of target mRNAs. SiRNAs are widely used in modern biology research for their function to knock down specific genes and promise future applications in gene therapy.

並列關鍵字

microRNA ； Small interfering RNA ； Argonaute ； lin-4 ； let-7