A universal plasmid library encoding all permutations of small interfering RNA.

Chen, Meihong; Zhang, Lishu; Zhang, Hong-Yan; Xiong, Xiahui; Wang, Bo; Du, Quan; Lu, Bing; Wahlestedt, Claes et al. · Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A · 2005

basic_science · Level V

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Abstract

Small interfering RNA (siRNA) is normally designed to silence preselected known genes. Such selections are inevitably prone to bias as a result of limited knowledge about the biological process, transcript identity, and functions. A library that contains all permutations of siRNA could avoid such problems. In this paper, it is shown that 5 x 10(7) siRNA-encoding plasmids can be constructed in a single tube by using vectors with two mutated RNA polymerase III promoters arranged in a convergent manner. Such a library was used to carry out genomewide screening of functional genes in a phenotype-driven manner. Multiple siRNAs that induce a significant increase of cell proliferation speed were identified.

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