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RNA STRUCTURE

Ribosomes clear the way for siRNA targeting

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Visualizing siRNA targeting of single mRNAs in living cells reveals that passing ribosomes temporarily unfold the mRNA, exposing it to siRNA recognition. This effect is due to the slow reorganization of many weak, suboptimal interactions within the mRNA.

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Fig. 1: Visualizing the kinetics of siRNA–AGO2 cleavage in living cells.
Fig. 2: Targets located in coding sequences are masked by multiple weak RNA interactions.

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Correspondence to Sarah A. Woodson.

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Małecka, E.M., Woodson, S.A. Ribosomes clear the way for siRNA targeting. Nat Struct Mol Biol 27, 775–777 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41594-020-0495-4

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