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Strand-specific 5'-O-methylation of siRNA duplexes controls guide strand selection and targeting specificity

Chen, P. Y. and Weinmann, L. and Gaidatzis, D. and Pei, Y. and Zavolan, M. and Tuschl, T. and Meister, G.. (2008) Strand-specific 5'-O-methylation of siRNA duplexes controls guide strand selection and targeting specificity. RNA, Vol. 14, H. 2. pp. 263-274.

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Official URL: http://edoc.unibas.ch/dok/A5259646

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Abstract

Small interfering RNAs (siRNAs) and microRNAs (miRNAs) guide catalytic sequence-specific cleavage of fully or nearly fully complementary target mRNAs or control translation and/or stability of many mRNAs that share 6-8 nucleotides (nt) of complementarity to the siRNA and miRNA 5' end. siRNA- and miRNA-containing ribonucleoprotein silencing complexes are assembled from double-stranded 21- to 23-nt RNase III processing intermediates that carry 5' phosphates and 2-nt overhangs with free 3' hydroxyl groups. Despite the structural symmetry of a duplex siRNA, the nucleotide sequence asymmetry can generate a bias for preferred loading of one of the two duplex-forming strands into the RNA-induced silencing complex (RISC). Here we show that the 5'-phosphorylation status of the siRNA strands also acts as an important determinant for strand selection. 5'-O-methylated siRNA duplexes refractory to 5' phosphorylation were examined for their biases in siRNA strand selection. Asymmetric, single methylation of siRNA duplexes reduced the occupancy of the silencing complex by the methylated strand with concomitant elimination of its off-targeting signature and enhanced off-targeting signature of the phosphorylated strand. Methylation of both siRNA strands reduced but did not completely abolish RNA silencing, without affecting strand selection relative to that of the unmodified siRNA. We conclude that asymmetric 5' modification of siRNA duplexes can be useful for controlling targeting specificity.
Faculties and Departments:05 Faculty of Science > Departement Biozentrum > Computational & Systems Biology > Bioinformatics (Zavolan)
UniBasel Contributors:Zavolan, Mihaela
Item Type:Article, refereed
Article Subtype:Research Article
Publisher:Cambridge University Press
ISSN:1355-8382
Note:Publication type according to Uni Basel Research Database: Journal article
Last Modified:22 Mar 2012 14:21
Deposited On:22 Mar 2012 13:23

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