RNA polymerase III can drive polycistronic expression of functional interfering RNAs designed to resemble microRNAs.

ABSTRACT: In both research and therapeutic applications of RNA interference, it is often advantageous to silence several targets simultaneously. Toward this end, several groups have developed vectors that utilize the model of endogenously encoded micro (mi) RNAs, where a single RNA polymerase II promoter can drive the expression of multiple interfering RNAs. Stronger pol III promoters have been used to drive individual short hairpin (sh) RNAs, but to date, it has been necessary to repeat the promoter in each silencing cassette to achieve multiplexed expression from a single vector. Here, we show that it is possible to drive polycistronic expression from a single pol III promoter when the interfering RNAs are formatted to resemble miRNAs rather than shRNAs. As many as four miRNAs designed to target h

SUBMITTER: Snyder LL 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC2770651 | biostudies-literature | 2009 Oct

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature