Characterization of the roles of Xrn1p in small-RNA-mediated gene-silencing pathways

RNA interference (RNAi) is a small-RNA-mediated gene-silencing pathway that is involved in viral defense, transposon silencing, heterochromatin formation, and post-transcriptional gene silencing. Most RNAi pathways are initiated by long, dsRNA which is processed by Dicer into small interfering RNAs (siRNAs). These siRNAs are then loaded into an effector protein Argonaute forming the RNA-induced silencing complex (RISC). RISC is then able to silence its target RNAs in a variety of fashions, including by slicing them. RNAi is ubiquitous in eukaryotes with pathways found in plants, animals and fungi, suggesting its early origins and importance. Despite the usefulness of this pathway as a mechanism of genomic defense, the model budding yeast species, Saccharomyces cerevisiae, does not possess an RNAi pathway. Although S. cerevisiae does not possess an RNAi pathway, several related budding yeast species do, including Naumovozyma castellii and Vanderwaltozyma polyspora.

Name thesis:degree_name

Doctoral

Department dc:contributor.department

Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Biology

Grantor dc:publisher

Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Year dc:date.issued

2019

Author dc:creator

• Getz, Matthew Aaron.

Advisor dc:contributor.advisor

• David P. Bartel.

• Biology.

Statement dc:rights

• MIT theses are protected by copyright. They may be viewed, downloaded, or printed from this source but further reproduction or distribution in any format is prohibited without written permission.

Licence dc:rights.uri

• http://dspace.mit.edu/handle/1721.1/7582

Language dc:language.iso

eng

Handle dc:identifier.uri

https://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/123703

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:dspace.mit.edu:1721.1/123703