RNAi Service for Algae

Endogenous small RNAs in algae play a role in the RNA interference (RNAi) pathway, which controls gene expression through mRNA cleavage, translational repression, or chromatin modification.

With years of experience in the field of RNAi, Lifeasible is able to provide quality RNAi (RNA interference) services for algae to help you overcome the challenges in the engineering process.

Introduction to RNAi

RNAi refers to a molecular biology phenomenon of gene silencing induced by double-stranded RNA, the mechanism of which is to inhibit gene expression by blocking the transcription or translation of a specific gene. When a double-stranded RNA homologous to the coding region of an endogenous mRNA is introduced into the cell, the mRNA undergoes degradation resulting in the silencing of gene expression. Two types of RNA can conduct RNAi effects.

Introduction to siRNA and shRNA

siRNA

A very important enzyme in RNAi is Dicer, one of the RNaseIII family of nucleases, which binds to double-stranded RNA (dsRNA) and shears it into small RNA fragments of 21-23 nt with protruding 3' ends, which are named as small interfering RNAs (siRNA). The siRNA then binds to an RNA-induced silencing complex (RISC) composed of several proteins and deconvolves into a single strand. This complex then dominates the RNAi effect.

shRNA

Short hairpin RNA (shRNA) is an engineered RNA molecule with tight hairpin steering that can silence the expression of target genes through RNA interference (RNAi). In the host cell, after treatment by Dicer, pre-shRNA is loaded into the RNA-induced silencing complex (RISC). After the passenger strand degradation, the guide strand directs RISC to mRNAs with complementary sequences to silence the target gene.

The RNAi in Algae

The Mechanism of RNAi in Algae

Just like the RNAi pathway in other species, the ultimate trigger for RNAi in algae is dsRNA. Essential components of the RNA-mediated silencing machinery, such as Dicer and Argonaute can process dsRNA into siRNA. In vivo, dsRNA can be produced by transcribing the antisense strand of the target gene. And then the antisense RNA can anneal to complementary transcripts in the cell. Nowadays, RNA-mediated silencing is used as a reverse genetics tool for targeted knockdown of a variety of genes in a few algal species, such as C. reinhardtii.

Fig.1 The mechanism of RNAi.

The Advantage of RNAi

Although targeted knockout of endogenous genes by homologous recombination has been shown to be applicable to algae, homologous recombination events rarely occur in algae, such as Chlamydomonas, and therefore targeted knockout does not appear to be suitable as a standard approach.

Our Services

RNAi technology is one of the more established technologies in algal engineering, which has made it possible to effectively regulate gene expression. As a trusted and fully developed CRO company, Lifeasible is capable to provide quality RNAi services for algae and consult services to promote algae research and applications.

We can provide RNAi services on a wide range of algae, including but not limited to C. reinhardtii, V. carteri, D. salina, P. tricornutum, and E. gracilis.

Our services are for research use only and not for any clinical use.