WHAT is cRNA? - information regarding cRNA (Apr/25/2010 )

As the title says, what is cRNA? why is it used? need a good clear info , papers appreciated.

specific question-
1. does cRNA injection in cells lead to protein translation or production?


thanks
Kedar

cRNA = complementary RNA

Synthetic transcripts of a specific DNA molecule or fragment, made by an in vitro transcription system. This cRNA can be labeled with radioactive uracil and then used as a probe. (King & Stansfield, A Dictionary of Genetics, 4th ed)

That's all i found ...google will help you get along!

In general it is possible to transfect cells with in-vitro transcribed RNA and produce proteins (works fine as far as i know).

Regards,
p

pDNA on Apr 25 2010, 07:50 AM said:

RNA:RNA (ds RNA) is more stable than RNA:DNA hybrids, so RNA:RNA works better for in situ hybridisation, northern blots etc. In theory at least.

hi,


as already mentioned cRNA is in vitro transcribed RNA from cDNA. you can also add a 5'cap and a poly A tail to produce "synthetic" mRNA. this cRNA can be, for instance, microinjected into X. laevis oocytes which is a common system to study membrane transport mechanisms.
I think the advantage is that you don't have to rely on the transcritpitional machinery of your host system (and it should be faster too because you are skipping the RNA transcription step) and yes the cRNA should be translated into protein.