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Systemic RNAi in C. elegans from the Viewpoint of RNA as Extracellular Signals

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Extracellular Nucleic Acids

Part of the book series: Nucleic Acids and Molecular Biology ((NUCLEIC,volume 25))

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Abstract

The elegantly simple organism Caenorhabditis elegans has played an important role in the RNAi field. In 1997, the first RNAi experiment was performed in this nematode by engineering a specific sequence of double-stranded RNA (dsRNA) and injecting the molecules into the organism. Subsequently, an RNAi response was noted not only in the treated animal but also in its progeny. In later experiments that utilized Green Fluorescent Protein to assess RNAi in individual cells, systemic RNAi phenocopies were observed in most nonneuronal tissues. These early observations of systemic RNAi revealed a hitherto unknown feature of RNA molecules: an ability of locally delivered dsRNAs to traffic to distant somatic and germline cells and to gain entry into those cells – an ability not generally observed for structurally similar DNA molecules. Understanding the precise nature of the RNA molecules that facilitate RNAi as well as the cellular mechanisms that respond to them will provide insights into the unusually robust nature of RNAi in C. elegans as well as highlight potential trafficking routes for endogenous RNAs.

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Acknowledgment

My special thanks are due to A. Fire for the integrated gfp reporter used in Fig. 6.2 and to members of the laboratory for their helpful comments. My sincere apologies to those whose work was not given adequate credit. I gratefully acknowledge the American Cancer Society for funding the research in our lab.

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  1. Department of Molecular Biosciences, University of Kansas, Lawrence, KS, USA

    Lisa Timmons

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  1. Lisa Timmons
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Correspondence to Lisa Timmons .

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  1. , Dept. of Environmental and Life Sciences, Toyohashi University of Technology, Toyohashi-city, 441-8580, Japan

    Yo Kikuchi

  2. Fundamental Medicine, Institute of Chemical Biology and, Lavrentjeva Prospect 8, Novosibirsk, 630090, Russian Federation

    Elena Y. Rykova

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Timmons, L. (2010). Systemic RNAi in C. elegans from the Viewpoint of RNA as Extracellular Signals. In: Kikuchi, Y., Rykova, E. (eds) Extracellular Nucleic Acids. Nucleic Acids and Molecular Biology, vol 25. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-12617-8_6

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