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Published Online July 17, 2003
Science DOI: 10.1126/science.1086870

Research Articles

This article has been retracted

Submitted on May 15, 2003
Accepted on July 7, 2003

Hairpin RNAs and Retrotransposon LTRs Effect RNAi and Chromatin-Based Gene Silencing

Vera Schramke 1 Robin Allshire 1*

1 Wellcome Trust Centre for Cell Biology, Institute of Cell and Molecular Biology, King's Buildings, University of Edinburgh, Edinburgh EH6 7PJ, Scotland, UK.

* To whom correspondence should be addressed. E-mail: robin.allshire{at}ed.ac.uk.

The expression of short hairpin RNAs in several organisms silences gene expression by targeted mRNA degradation. This RNA interference pathway can also affect the genome, as DNA methylation arises at loci homologous to the target RNA in plants. We demonstrate in fission yeast that expression of a synthetic hairpin RNA is sufficient to silence the homologous locus in trans and causes the assembly of a patch of silent Swi6 chromatin with cohesin. This requires components of the RNA interference machinery and Clr4 histone methyl-transferase for small interfering RNA generation. A similar process represses several meiotic genes through nearby retrotransposon long terminal repeats (LTRs). These analyses directly implicate interspersed LTRs in regulating gene expression during cellular differentiation.


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