Search for antisense copies of beta-globin mRNA in anemic mouse spleen

摘要

BackgroundPrevious studies by Volloch and coworkers have reported that during the expression of high levels of β-globin mRNA in the spleen of anemic mice, they could also detect small but significant levels of an antisense (AS) globin RNA species, which they postulated might have somehow arisen by RNA-directed RNA synthesis. For two reasons we undertook to confirm and possibly extend these studies. First, previous studies in our lab have focussed on what is an unequivocal example of host RNA-directed RNA polymerase activity on the RNA genome of human hepatitis delta virus. Second, if AS globin species do exist they could in turn form double-stranded RNA species which might induce post-transcriptional gene silencing, a phenomenon somehow provoked in eukaryotic cells by AS RNA sequences.