Mammalian short hairpin RNA (shRNA) interference is a mechanism of translational control that targets expression at post-transcriptional level. The translation of particular mRNA transcripts is prevented by homologous short strands of RNA bound to an RNA-induced silencing complex (RISC). When RISC detects a sequence complementary to the shRNA, it either cleaves it or prevents its translation and marks it for degradation.

Viral vectors carrying shRNA sequences can be used for both permanent gene silencing and for inducible knockdown models.

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