From plants to animals

CSIRO’s hairpinRNAi provides the most effective gene silencing technology for plants. As a proven performer in plants, hairpinRNAi has been used extensively for research purposes and to successfully develop plants for commercial use. CSIRO has now transferred this technology to animals and are looking for partners to help us be successful in this venture.

The technology

A powerful method to identify genes for targeted therapeutics, gene-based interventions and selected breeding.

HairpinRNAi in animals

The search for genes that are responsible for valuable quality traits has been revolutionised by hairpinRNAi. It is now possible to discover these genes via a systematic, high-throughput process in animals with sequenced genomes, such as the cow and the chicken.
hairpinRNAi can also be used to target virus and parasite genes in the development of precise therapeutics for diseases of companion, livestock and aquatic animals.

Using hairpinRNAi

CSIRO has developed a highly refined and validated technology platform as well as holding key intellectual property in hairpinRNAi. CSIRO is making its technology available for research and for the development of commercial products.

The future

• Gene discovery for improved production traits in livestock.
• Precision Therapeutics for viruses and parasites.
• Disease resistant animals via hairpinRNAi transgenes.

Selection of publications demonstrating hairpinRNAi in animals

Huang, B., and Kochanek, S. (2005) Adenovirus-mediated silencing of huntingtin expression by shRNA. Hum Gene Ther. May, 16(5): 618-26.

Andrea Ventura, Alexander Meissner, Christopher P. Dillon, Michael McManus, Phillip A. Sharp, Luk Van Parijs, Rudolf Jaenisch, and Tyler Jacks. (2004) Cre-lox-regulated conditional RNA interference from transgenes. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. July 13, 101(28): 10380–10385.

Aili Lu, Huanqing Zhang, Xiaoyan Zhang, Hongxia Wang, Qikuan Hu, Li Shen, Brian S. Schaffhausen, Weimin Hou and Linsong Li. (2004) Attenuation of SARS coronavirus by a short hairpin RNA expression plasmid targeting RNA-dependent RNA polymerase. Virology 324, 84-89.
Hironori Nishitsuji, Tamako Ikeda, Hiroyuki Miyoshi, Takashi Ohashi, Mari Kannagi and Takao Masuda. (2004) Expression of small hairpin RNA by lentivirus-based vector confers efficient and stable gene-suppression of HIV-1 on human cells including primary non-dividing cells. Microbes and Infection 6, 76-85

Marvin J. Grubman and Teresa de los Santos. (2005) Rapid control of foot-and-mouth disease outbreaks: is RNAi a possible solution? Trends in Immunology 26, 65-68

Spankuch, B., Matthess, Y., Knecht, R., Zimmer, B., Kaufmann, M., Strebhardt., K. (2004) Cancer inhibition in nude mice after systemic application of U6 promoter-driven short hairpin RNAs against PLK1. J Natl Cancer Inst. Jun 2; 96(11): 862-72.

Contact

Dr Tim Doran
Project Leader
RNAi Technologies
CSIRO Livestock Industries

Phone   +61 3 5227 5788
Fax         +61 3 5227 5555
Email      timothy.doran@csiro.au