The Role of Argonaute in RNAi

描述（由申请人提供）：RNA干扰（RNAi）近年来在实验生物学中引起了风暴，因为它已被极大地利用作为通过RNAi进行基因沉默来研究基因功能的日益有效的工具。它也被开发为一种可能的治疗工具。RNAi机制已被证明在发育中起作用，并且似乎在维持干细胞身份方面很重要。虽然在解开RNAi机制的组成部分方面已经取得了显着的进展，但我们才刚刚开始了解它们在分子水平上是如何工作的。该提案的目的是提供结构和生物化学框架，这将使我们能够理解RNAi基因沉默的机制，重点是RNA诱导沉默复合物（RISC）的签名组件，Argonaute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.