The Role of Argonaute in RNAi

描述(申请人提供)：近年来，RNA干扰(RNAi)在实验生物学中掀起了一场风暴，因为它已被极大地开发为一种日益有效的工具，通过RNAi实现基因沉默来研究基因功能。它还被开发为一种可能的治疗工具。RNAi机制已被证明在发育过程中发挥了作用，并似乎在维持干细胞特性方面发挥了重要作用。尽管在解开RNAi机制的组成部分方面已经取得了显著的进展，但我们才刚刚开始了解它们在分子水平上是如何工作的。本建议的目的是提供结构和生化框架，使我们能够了解RNAi导致基因沉默的机制，重点是RNA诱导沉默复合体(RISC)的标志性成分-ArgAerte蛋白。

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): RNA interference (RNAi) has taken experimental biology by storm in recent years, since it has been greatly exploited as an ever increasingly effective tool to study gene function by gene silencing through RNAi. It is also being developed as a possible therapeutic tool. The RNAi machinery has been shown to have a role in development and appears to be important in maintaining stem cell identity. Though there has been remarkable progress in unraveling the components of the RNAi machinery, we are just beginning to understand how they work at the molecular level. The objective of this proposal is to provide the structural and biochemical framework, which will enable us to understand the mechanism of gene silencing by RNAi, with a focus on the signature component of the RNA-induced silencing complex (RISC), the Argonaute protein.