RNA-induced silencing complex, or RISC, is a multiprotein complex that incorporates one strand of a small interfering RNA (siRNA) or microRNA (miRNA). RISC uses the siRNA or miRNA as a template for recognizing complementary mRNA. When it finds a complementary strand, it activates RNase and cleaves the RNA. This process is important both in gene regulation by microRNAs and in defense against viral infections, which often use double-stranded RNA as an infectious vector.
Read more about RNA-induced Silencing Complex: Strands, Binding
Famous quotes containing the words silencing and/or complex:
“The peculiar evil of silencing the expression of an opinion is, that it is robbing the human race; posterity as well as the existing generation; those who dissent from the opinion, still more than those who hold it. If the opinion is right, they are deprived of the opportunity of exchanging error for truth: if wrong, they lose, what is almost as great a benefit, the clearer perception and livelier impression of truth, produced by its collision with error.”
—John Stuart Mill (1806–1873)
“The money complex is the demonic, and the demonic is God’s ape; the money complex is therefore the heir to and substitute for the religious complex, an attempt to find God in things.”
—Norman O. Brown (b. 1913)