Coexpression of Argonaute-2 enhances RNA interference toward perfect match binding sites.

ABSTRACT: RNAi is widely applied to inhibit expression of specific genes, but it is limited by variable efficiency and specificity of empirically designed siRNA or shRNA constructs. This complicates studies targeting individual genes and significantly impairs large-scale screens using genome-wide knockdown libraries. Here, we show that ectopic expression of the RISC slicer Argonaute-2 (Ago2, eIF2C2) dramatically enhances RNAi specifically for mRNA targets with perfectly matched binding sites. This effect depends on its endonuclease activity and is uncoupled from its regulation of microRNA expression. To model the application of Ago2 coexpression with shRNA knockdown, we targeted the EGF receptor (EGFR) in lung cancer cells exhibiting oncogene addiction to EGFR. Whereas multiple empirically designed

SUBMITTER: Diederichs S 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC2442125 | biostudies-literature | 2008 Jul

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature