RNA Interference is Not Involved in Natural Antisense Mediated Regulation of Gene Expression in Mammals

Overview

Journal Genome Biol

Specialties Biology
Genetics

Date 2006 May 11

PMID 16684369

Citations 25

Authors

Mohammad Ali Faghihi

Claes Wahlestedt

Affiliations

Soon will be listed here.

Abstract

Background: Antisense transcription, yielding both coding and non-coding RNA, is a widespread phenomenon in mammals. The mechanism by which natural antisense transcripts (NAT) may regulate gene expression are largely unknown. The aim of the present study was to explore the mechanism of reciprocal sense-antisense (S-AS) regulation by studying the effects of a coding and non-coding NAT on corresponding gene expression, and to investigate the possible involvement of endogenous RNA interference (RNAi) in S-AS interactions.

Results: We have examined the mechanism of S-AS RNA base pairing, using thymidylate synthase and hypoxia inducible factor-1alpha as primary examples of endogenous genes with coding and non-coding NAT partners, respectively. Here we provide direct evidence against S-AS RNA duplex formation in the cytoplasm of human cells and subsequent activation of RNAi.

Conclusion: Collectively, our data demonstrate that NAT regulation of gene expression occurs through a pathway independent of Dicer associated RNAi. Moreover, we introduce an experimental strategy with utility for the functional examination of other S-AS pair interactions.

Citing Articles

Non-coding antisense transcripts: fine regulation of gene expression in cancer.

Santos F, Capela A, Mateus F, Nobrega-Pereira S, de Jesus B Comput Struct Biotechnol J. 2022; 20:5652-5660.

PMID: 36284703 PMC: 9579725. DOI: 10.1016/j.csbj.2022.10.009.

Ectopically expressed Slc34a2a sense-antisense transcripts cause a cerebellar phenotype in zebrafish embryos depending on RNA complementarity and Dicer.

Piatek M, Henderson V, Fearn A, Chaudhry B, Werner A PLoS One. 2017; 12(5):e0178219.

PMID: 28542524 PMC: 5436864. DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0178219.

Cis-Natural Antisense Transcripts Are Mainly Co-expressed with Their Sense Transcripts and Primarily Related to Energy Metabolic Pathways during Muscle Development.

Zhao Y, Hou Y, Zhao C, Liu F, Luan Y, Jing L Int J Biol Sci. 2016; 12(8):1010-21.

PMID: 27489504 PMC: 4971739. DOI: 10.7150/ijbs.14825.

Natural antisense transcripts.

Khorkova O, Myers A, Hsiao J, Wahlestedt C Hum Mol Genet. 2014; 23(R1):R54-63.

PMID: 24838284 PMC: 4170719. DOI: 10.1093/hmg/ddu207.

Endogenous RNA interference is driven by copy number.

Cruz C, Houseley J Elife. 2014; 3:e01581.

PMID: 24520161 PMC: 3918874. DOI: 10.7554/eLife.01581.

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