RNAi's Scarlet Pimpernel

Graeme O'Neill traces the remarkable work of Dr Peter Waterhouse and his colleagues on RNA-induced gene silencing in plants in the cover story of the November/December issue of Australian Life Scientist.

Waterhouse is searching for the Scarlet Pimpernel, the elusive molecule responsible for spreading gene silencing through plants.

We also look at neuronal microRNAs and their involvement in neuronal plasticity and talk to Bryan Williams about the effect of siRNAs on the innate immune system in our main feature on the world of RNAi.

Also featured in this issue:

• How Rocky the pig is set to become the star witness is the case for or against the xenotransplantation moratorium in 2009

• How the chance discovery of a salt-tolerance gene from decades-old seed lines is looking promising for long-suffering farmers

• Why Tasmanian Devils can't fight back against facial tumour disease

• Who is speaking at the Australasian Society for Immunology's annual conference and what they have to say about apoptosis-related proteins in the immune system and why our immune system can fight some viral infections but not others

• What is happening in the world of proteomics, particularly for diagnostic and veterinary applications

• Why alternative splicing is important for whole transcript analysis by microarray

• And finally, what some sea creatures get up to under the doona.

As always, ALS features all of the latest products and methods on the market in Lab News, the latest scientific literature in our Bookshop and local and international conference dates in Events.