Sound Off
With RNA interference, gene silencing roars into labs
Although you don’t hear a thing, there is a raucous party going on inside each one of your cells. Each minute of every day, molecules are murmuring information from one to the next in an ancient version of the game of telephone.
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DNA, the genetic party host, starts each round by whispering a message to its chemical cousin RNA. Keeping the game going, RNA passes this communication to the ribosomes, the cell’s amino acid–linking machines. They, in turn, spit out a protein translation of the original message. The proteins that result from this string of chatter fulfill all the cell’s vital functions—and keep it going for countless more rounds of telephone throughout its life.