Posttranscriptional Gene Silencing in Plants

Double-stranded RNA when introduced into cells results in severe reduction of the target mRNA. This phenomenon is known as posttranscriptional gene silencing in plants and RNA interference in animals. Hairpin RNA-mediated gene silencing exploits this cellular mechanism. A convenient way of generating hairpin constructs is to use generic vectors such as pHANNIBAL and pHELLSGATE, vectors based on the Gateway� technology. These vectors are suitable for high-throughput gene silencing, and the silencing effect is stably inherited over many generations.