Abstract
Antisense RNA molecule represents a unique type of DNA transcript that comprises 19–23 nucleotides and is complementary to mRNA. Antisense RNAs play the crucial role in regulating gene expression at multiple levels, such as at replication, transcription, and translation. In addition, artificial antisense RNAs can effectively regulate the expression of related genes in host cells. With the development of antisense RNA, investigating the functions of antisense RNAs has emerged as a hot research field. This review summarizes our current understanding of antisense RNAs, particularly of the formation of antisense RNAs and their mechanism of regulating the expression of their target genes. In addition, we detail the effects and applications of antisense RNAs in antivirus and anticancer treatments and in regulating the expression of related genes in plants and microorganisms. This review is intended to highlight the key role of antisense RNA in genetic research and guide new investigators to the study of antisense RNAs.
中文概要
该综述较为全面地概述了当前反义RNA 的研究现状,特别是它的形成模式以及参与调节目的基因的调节机制。同时,还概述了反义RNA在病毒和癌症治疗以及在遗传改造植物和微生物中 的应用,为拟计划开展反义RNA 研究的学者提 供了指导。
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Acknowledgements
We thank Mr. Gong CHENG (Department of Antibody Preparation, Wuxi Pharma Tech Co., Ltd., Wuxi, China) for helpful discussion.
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Project supported by the Natural Science Foundation of Jiangsu Province (No. BK20150149), the China Postdoctoral Science Foundation Grant (No. 2016M590410), and the Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities (No. JUSRP115A19), China
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Xu, Jz., Zhang, Jl. & Zhang, Wg. Antisense RNA: the new favorite in genetic research. J. Zhejiang Univ. Sci. B 19, 739–749 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1631/jzus.B1700594
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1631/jzus.B1700594