title: Small interfering RNA and gene silencing in transgenic mice and rats.
abstract: After short duplexes of synthetic 21-23 nt RNAs (siRNA) were reported to be effective in silencing specific genes, a vector-based approach for siRNAs was demonstrated in mammalian cultured cell lines. However, the effect of RNA interference (RNAi) on various differentiated cells in live animals remains unknown. In this report, we demonstrate that transgenically supplied siRNA can silence ubiquitously expressed enhanced green fluorescent protein in every part of the mouse and rat body. These results suggest that transgenic RNAi could function as an alternative method of gene silencing by applying homologous recombination to embryonic stem (ES) cells, and should be successful even in species where ES cell lines remain unestablished.
authors.affiliation: Genome Information Research Center, Osaka University, Yamadaoka 3-1, Suita, Osaka 565-0871, Japan.
authors.forename: Hidetoshi
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Hasuwa
authors.forename: Kazuhiro
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Kaseda
authors.forename: Thorbjorg
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Einarsdottir
authors.forename: Masaru
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Okabe
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D030801:Animals, Genetically Modified; D000831:Animals, Newborn; D001483:Base Sequence; D002460:Cell Line; D004622:Embryo, Mammalian / Q000166:cytology / Q000378:metabolism; D049452:Green Fluorescent Proteins; D008164:Luminescent Proteins / Q000096:biosynthesis / Q000235:genetics; D051379:Mice; D008810:Mice, Inbred C57BL; D008822:Mice, Transgenic; D034622:RNA Interference; D034741:RNA, Small Interfering / Q000235:genetics*; D051381:Rats
chemical_list: D008164:Luminescent Proteins; D034741:RNA, Small Interfering; D049452:Green Fluorescent Proteins