The RNA silencing pathway: the bits and pieces that matter.
Cellular pathways are generally proposed on the basis of available experimental knowledge. The proposed pathways, however, may be inadequate to describe the phenomena they are supposed to explain. For instance, by means of concise mathematical models we are able to reveal shortcomings in the current...
| Format: | Article |
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| Language: | English |
| Published: |
Public Library of Science (PLoS)
2005-07-01
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| Series: | PLoS Computational Biology |
| Online Access: | http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pcbi.0010021 |
| _version_ | 1819141502308188160 |
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| collection | DOAJ |
| description | Cellular pathways are generally proposed on the basis of available experimental knowledge. The proposed pathways, however, may be inadequate to describe the phenomena they are supposed to explain. For instance, by means of concise mathematical models we are able to reveal shortcomings in the current description of the pathway of RNA silencing. The silencing pathway operates by cleaving siRNAs from dsRNA. siRNAs can associate with RISC, leading to the degradation of the target mRNA. We propose and analyze a few small extensions to the pathway: a siRNA degrading RNase, primed amplification of aberrant RNA pieces, and cooperation between aberrant RNA to trigger amplification. These extensions allow for a consistent explanation for various types of silencing phenomena, such as virus induced silencing, transgene and transposon induced silencing, and avoidance of self-reactivity, as well as for differences found between species groups. |
| first_indexed | 2024-12-22T11:55:28Z |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj.art-3008c56ef22b43cc98b26820f0175976 |
| institution | Directory Open Access Journal |
| issn | 1553-734X 1553-7358 |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-12-22T11:55:28Z |
| publishDate | 2005-07-01 |
| publisher | Public Library of Science (PLoS) |
| record_format | Article |
| series | PLoS Computational Biology |
| spelling | doaj.art-3008c56ef22b43cc98b26820f01759762022-12-21T18:26:48ZengPublic Library of Science (PLoS)PLoS Computational Biology1553-734X1553-73582005-07-0112e21The RNA silencing pathway: the bits and pieces that matter.Cellular pathways are generally proposed on the basis of available experimental knowledge. The proposed pathways, however, may be inadequate to describe the phenomena they are supposed to explain. For instance, by means of concise mathematical models we are able to reveal shortcomings in the current description of the pathway of RNA silencing. The silencing pathway operates by cleaving siRNAs from dsRNA. siRNAs can associate with RISC, leading to the degradation of the target mRNA. We propose and analyze a few small extensions to the pathway: a siRNA degrading RNase, primed amplification of aberrant RNA pieces, and cooperation between aberrant RNA to trigger amplification. These extensions allow for a consistent explanation for various types of silencing phenomena, such as virus induced silencing, transgene and transposon induced silencing, and avoidance of self-reactivity, as well as for differences found between species groups.http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pcbi.0010021 |
| spellingShingle | The RNA silencing pathway: the bits and pieces that matter. PLoS Computational Biology |
| title | The RNA silencing pathway: the bits and pieces that matter. |
| title_full | The RNA silencing pathway: the bits and pieces that matter. |
| title_fullStr | The RNA silencing pathway: the bits and pieces that matter. |
| title_full_unstemmed | The RNA silencing pathway: the bits and pieces that matter. |
| title_short | The RNA silencing pathway: the bits and pieces that matter. |
| title_sort | rna silencing pathway the bits and pieces that matter |
| url | http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pcbi.0010021 |