RNA interference has rapidly become a widely used method to silence or knockdown gene expression.
Basic RNAi applications commonly introduce double-stranded, small interfering (si)RNA molecules into cells, to achieve quick and effective knockdown of gene expression through sequence-specific gene silencing.
Short hairpin (sh) or small interfering (si) RNA molecules can be introduced into your cells to quickly and effectively knockdown gene expression. In addition, shRNA can be used to achieve stable knockdown. These hairpin-shaped RNA molecules are cloned into lentiviral or other vectors and expressed by a pol III type promoter. The expressed shRNA is then exported into the cytoplasm and processed by dicer into siRNA, then incorporated into the siRNA-induced silencing complex (RISC). shRNA is often a necessity for long-term knockdown in cells with slow turnover, as siRNA could be diluted out before the cell degrades the mRNA.