Background

Discovering of non-coding RNA (ncRNAs) and reverse transcription of virus composes the central dogma that was declared by Francis Click. Since ncRNAs do not encode any proteins, they had been thought that they don't have any functions. However, it was proved that they do have many functions. For example, some ncRNAs reduce the efficiency of translation, while others promote that. (C. Claudia et al., 2012^[1]).

There are ncRNAs called anti-sense RNA (asRNAs), which down-regulate translation. An asRNA has a complement sequence of its target mRNA and reduces the translation efficiency by hybridizing. asRNAs can be easily synthesized, but there is no clear method to make stable, highly efficient asRNAs.

In this situation, Nakashima and his colleagues discovered asRNA that is sandwiched by 38 base pairs of repeated sequence is stable and regulates translation at a high efficiency (N Nakashima et al., 2006^[2]).

Many iGEM teams prepare their project using asRNA, but how many teams use the asRNA that is designed on clear concepts? This year, we provide you a BioBrick standardized procedure to design asRNAs.

Our procedure to design asRNAs will assure you that

• The asRNAs are based on a clear design concept.
• They are calculated to have ideal second structures.
• They have high efficiency to regulate translation, based on our results.

By using those asRNAs, we did the projects below.

• Construct our asRNA that has modified stem sequence.
• Construct B0034 -most popular RBS- specific asRNA, and regulate translation efficiency generally.
• Construct various length asRNA and discover the optimum length of asRNA.

Our project provides not only high efficient asRNAs but also brand new viewpoints to your project. As yet, almost all the projects presented to iGEM have focused to regulate the behavior of E. coli, only by transforming plasmids. But now, you can use our asRNA and regulate expression of the genes which are on genome.

We used hybridizing of mRNA and specific asRNA to resemble love of RNA, and named our project “RNA in Love” Let's watch over RNA in love!

1. C Claudiaet al. (2012) Long non-coding antisense RNA controls Uchl1 translation through an embedded SINEB2 repeat. Nature 491: 7424 454-
2. N Nakashima et al. (2006) Paired termini stabilize antisense RNAs and enhance conditional gene silencing in Escherichia coli. Nucleic Acids Res 34: 20 e138