What are the advantages of RNAi over other methods used for knocking down gene expression?
Knockout and transgenic animals are key ways that the loss-of-function phenotype has been studied. However, it is a long and expensive process to generate these animals. Also, loss of many genes results in an embryonic lethal phenotype making knockouts impossible. Methods for inactivating protein function include the construction and analysis of dominant-negative mutants, and the use of antibodies and aptamers. However, these may take some time to identify what form or construct will function, and they appear to work for only certain targets. Two methods have been used for modulating mRNA turnover, antisense and ribozymes. Both of these methods seem to be limited in their applications. RNAi is a cost-effective method for the rapid identification of gene function, and appears to work well for most genes tested to date. RNAi is rapidly becoming the preferred method for knocking out the expression of targeted genes. RNAi is useful for assigning gene function, signaling pathway analysis, R
