DESIGN AND COMPARATIVE EVALUATION OF ANTISENSE AND LONG HAIRPIN RNA EXPRESSION CONSTRUCTS IN VITRO

A vector-based approach has been developed to generate antisense and lhRNA inside the cell. The results showed that the long hairpin RNA has higher silencing efficiency (90%) compared to antisense RNA (70%). Significant (P<0.05) silencing of GFP expression (up to 25%) by an un-related lhRNA signifies the off-target effects of the lhRNA. The present findings taken together with the earlier reports suggest that dsRNA is an efficient tool in conducting functional genomics studies while highlighting the potential of vector-based RNAi approach.