RNA interference also called post transcriptional gene silencing, is a biological process in which RNA molecules inhibit gene expression, typically by causing the destruction of specific mRNA molecules. Historically, it was known by other names, including co-suppression, post transcriptional gene silencing, and quelling. Only after these apparently unrelated processes were fully understood did it become clear that they all described the RNAi phenomenon. In 2006, Andrew Fire and Craig C. Mello shared the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for their work on RNA interference in the nematode worm C. elegans, which they published in 1998. Two types of small ribonucleic acid molecules – microRNA and small interfering RNA – are central to RNA interference. RNAs are the direct products of genes, and these small RNAs can bind to other specific messenger RNA molecules and either increase or decrease their activity, for example by preventing an mRNA from producing a protein. RNA interference has an important role in defending cells against parasitic nucleotide sequences – viruses and transposons – but also in directing development as well as gene expression in general. Wikipedia [ - ]

RNA interference also called post transcriptional gene silencing, is a biological process in... [ + ]