RNAi Discovered

oday, scientists are using the RNAi mechanism to learn more about what particular genes do and how to alter their function. Determining gene function is a relatively simple matter of inserting double-stranded RNA molecules that have a particular sequence into cells and observing the effects after RNAi silences the corresponding gene.

Conceivably, this method may one day be used to silence gene mutations that cause human diseases such as Huntington's disease, rheumatoid arthritis, cancer, and many others. By using either the body's own mutations or viral invaders, scientists may develop a new type of drug—for example, one that switches off the genes of a cancer cell and leaves healthy cells unaffected. However, because RNAi's potential effects are so powerful, scientists must first determine that they can control the mechanism so that only the target gene is silenced, and not others.

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[allhailSTEWIEGRIFFIN]

Whats so amazing is that they explained RNAI so simply that even a 6th grader would understand it

[progenitor00]

wow, there's a castle in my cells, kooolness.

[SidheRelik]

RNAi is the process, not the thing. The 'suspicious recipe' is dsRNA, double-stranded RNA. Typical RNA is single stranded inside a human cell, but viral RNAs are sometimes double stranded. Hence, when the 'cop' detects the dsRNA, it destroys it thinking that it is viral RNA. The cop is, as Catalina said, the RISC complex. It is several proteins that detect and destroy the viral RNA and any similarly coded RNA it finds in the cell.

[Catalina Soto]

No queda claro en el video, pero en la realidad el RNAi es un tipo de RNA, es una "copia" de DNA o más bien un "transcrito". La maquinaria que lo reconoce y destruye a su "imagen de espejo" es otra (el RNAi no tiene actividad catalítica por si mismo). Puedes ver un video más específico acerca de las moléculas que participan acá: /watch?v=cK-OGB1_ELE

[LosVatosLocosss]

No, i think you are wrong. The cop is actually the RNAi. the mirron image is the suspicious recipe -usually a virus or a tumor- but in this case was the more purple gene

[zackboomer]

maybe they just added transcription factor for the gene into the cell

[Thaulopi]

And this, boys and girls, is how our ancestors destroyed our race, world and our brains andl nowdlös jdlksalf bed lösafösa

[Adam Sharif]

So how did they make the purple petunia in the end? Did they insert a gene that creates a white pigment? It makes sense to me since 'the cop' would destroy all mRNA transcripts with instructions for white pigment resulting in a purple flower. Is that what happens in the end?

[Billiam Clinton]

Yes, our Bio AP teacher showed us this the other day. Makes DNA and RNA so much more simpler.

[Catalina Soto]

No, it isn't.

The RNAi is the "mirror image", like a negative picture. You can fabricate these negative pictures of any transcript (or "copy of DNA") that you want. Then, if the negative picture and the transcript binds, the cop destroys both of them.

The cop is a complex named RISC, that destroy "mirror images" (normal + negative image), because virus normally uses that kind of transcript/molecule/message to invade the cell.

(I do not know if my english is right, sorry)

[beccanatorr8]

Is the cop the RNAi?