Monday 14 October 2013

Mammals chop up viral RNA to attack infection


This very effective defence mechanism, known as RNA interference, is common in plants, fungi and flies, but was thought not to occur in mammals. Scientists had even looked for evidence of it for 15 years. But two new studies published in Science looked at embryonic mice stem cells and discovered RNA fragments after infecting them with a virus. They also proved that the DICER enzyme regulates this chopping process, just as it does in insects and plants.

Read more: http://bit.ly/19mfP78 via Nature



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