Generation of Ski-knockdown mice by expressing a long double-strand RNA from an RNA polymerase II promoter

  1. Toshie Shinagawa and
  2. Shunsuke Ishii1
  1. Laboratory of Molecular Genetics, RIKEN Tsukuba Institute, Tsukuba, Ibaraki 305-0074, Japan

Abstract

We have developed a new vector, named pDECAP, to express long double-strand RNA (ds-RNA) from an RNA polymerase II (Pol II) promoter. Because the transcripts from pDECAP lack both the 5′-cap structure and the 3′-poly(A) tail that facilitate ds-RNA export to the cytoplasm, long ds-RNA from pDECAP does not induce the interferon response. Transgenic mice embryos expressing long ds-RNA for the transcriptional corepressor Ski from this vector exhibited phenotypes that were remarkably similar to those of Ski-deficient embryos, including defects of neural tube closure and eye formation. Thus, this vector provides a new tool to efficiently generate tissue-specific knockdown mice for studying gene function in whole animal systems.

Keywords

Footnotes

  • Supplemental material is available at http://www.genesdev.org.

  • Corresponding author.

  • 1 E-MAIL sishii{at}rtc.riken.go.jp; FAX 81-298-36-9030.

  • Article and publication are at http://www.genesdev.org/cgi/doi/10.1101/gad.1073003.

    • Accepted April 9, 2003.
    • Received January 8, 2003.
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