Question

If you wish to use RNAi to reduce the expression of a gene in an organism. What would you inject into the organism

Answer 1

Answer:

double-stranded RNA (dsRNA) homologous to the gene of interest

Explanation:

RNA interference (RNAi) is a naturally occurring mechanism used by eukaryotic cells to suppress gene expression through regulatory non-coding RNAs (e.g., small interfering RNAs, siRNAs) that are complementary to the target gene of interest. These non-coding RNAs can bind to target messenger RNAs (mRNAs) in the cytoplasm in order to trigger mRNA degradation and/or block translation. The RNAi mechanism is widely used in molecular biology laboratories in order to inhibit the expression of target genes and thus understand gene function. The RNAi mechanism can be induced by transfecting into cells long double-stranded RNA (dsRNA) molecules that are complementary to the target mRNA sequence to be degraded. RNAi is initiated by the enzyme Dicer that cleaves dsRNAs into siRNAs (19 to 25 nucleotides), which are then incorporated into an RNA-induced silencing complex (RISC) in order to suppress gene expression at the post-transcriptional level (i.e., the mRNA is degraded after transcription).