RNA interference in yeast

RNA干扰（RNAi）是一种利用小分子RNA控制基因表达的保守过程。尽管RNAi在1998年才被发现，但它是一个古老的过程，在真核生物中无处不在。RNAi技术的迅速发展为基因功能的研究带来了革命性的变化，并为人类、动物和植物的遗传和感染性疾病的治疗带来了巨大的希望。 RNAi的基本步骤已经被很好地理解，并且RNAi作为实验室工具的发展已经迅速超过了调节该过程的细胞机制的研究。因此，缺乏的是RNAi在时间和空间上如何调节的清晰画面。这是至关重要的，因为在许多生物体中，RNAi在全球水平上调节基因表达。例如，RNAi可以控制某些生物体中超过50%的基因的表达。因此，RNAi本身必须受到高度调控。 酵母是研究复杂调控网络的优良遗传和细胞生物学模式生物。事实上，在裂殖酵母裂殖酵母中的RNAi研究已经揭示了以前未知的调节基因表达的途径。与大多数其他真核生物不同，酿酒酵母最近丢失了一些关键的RNAi基因，直到最近，研究人员才能够利用这种模型系统的力量来研究RNAi。然而，我们和其他实验室已经能够在S.啤酒。因此，芽殖酵母可以作为构建RNAi系统的支架生物。我们的研究计划的主要目标是通过识别分裂和芽殖酵母中RNAi的共同和独特调节剂来了解酵母中RNAi调节网络的演变。我们将专注于两个主要领域：1）Argonautes和Dicer蛋白在小RNA的加工和加载过程中如何功能性地相互作用; 2）在酵母中调节RNAi的激酶和磷酸酶的表征。

RNA interference (RNAi) is a conserved process that uses small RNAs to control gene expression. Although it was only discovered in 1998, RNAi is an ancient process that is ubiquitous in eukaryotes. The rapid development of RNAi as a tool revolutionized the study of gene function and it holds great promise for treatment of genetic and infectious diseases in humans, animals and plants. The basic steps in RNAi are well understood and the development of RNAi as a laboratory tool has rapidly outpaced the study of cellular mechanisms that regulate this process. What is lacking therefore is a clear picture of how RNAi is temporally and spatially regulated. This is critical because in many organisms, RNAi modulates gene expression on a global level. For example, RNAi may control the expression of more than 50% of genes in some organisms. As such, RNAi itself must be highly regulated. Yeast have served as excellent genetic and cell biological model organisms for the study of complex regulatory networks. Indeed, the study of RNAi in the fission yeast Schizosaccharomyces pombe has uncovered previously unknown pathways for regulating gene expression. Unlike most other eukaryotes, Saccharomyces cerevisiae recently lost a number of key RNAi genes and until recently, researchers were not able to harness the power of this model system to study RNAi. However, we and other laboratories have been able to reconstitute yeast and mammalian RNAi pathways in S. cerevisiae. As such, budding yeast can serve as a scaffold organism with which to build up RNAi systems. The main goal of our research program is to understand the evolution of RNAi regulatory networks in yeast by identifying common and unique regulators of RNAi in fission and budding yeast. We will focus on two main areas: 1) How Argonautes and Dicer proteins functionally interact during processing and loading of small RNAs; 2) Characterization of kinases and phosphatases that regulate RNAi in yeast.