Atticus Rare Books

Potent and Specific Genetic Interference by Double-Stranded RNA in Caenorhabditis elegans in Nature, 391, February 19, 1998, pp. 806–811 [LANDMARK DISCOVERY OF RNA INTERFERENCE (RNAi)]

Fire, A., S. Xu, M. K. Montgomery, S. A. Kostas, S. E. Driver, & C. C. Mello

London: Macmillan & Sons, 1998. 1st Edition. FIRST EDITION IN ORIGINAL WRAPS OF THE LANDMARK DISCOVERY OF RNA INTERFERENCE (RNAi), A FUNDAMENTAL MECHANISM OF GENE REGULATION. RNAi became both a major research tool and a new class of therapeutics. In terms of impact on biology, medicine, and biotechnology, this paper is considered a foundational discovery, not just an incremental advance.

Fire and Mello won the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine IN 2006, just eight years after publication, unusually fast recognition for how transformative it was.

Prior to Fire and Mello’s paper, researchers knew that injecting antisense RNA into C. elegans could sometimes silence genes, but the effect was often weak, inconsistent, and poorly understood. Fire and Mello showed that the actual trigger was double-stranded RNA (dsRNA), not single-stranded antisense RNA as had been assumed. They found that dsRNA was far more potent than either sense or antisense strands alone (effective at just a few molecules per cell), that it could silence genes with striking specificity, that the effect could spread between cells and even to offspring, and that it worked catalytically rather than stoichiometrically — implying an amplification mechanism.

The discovery that RNAi is a natural, evolutionarily conserved gene-regulation and antiviral defense mechanism found across plants, animals, and fungi. The rapid development of RNAi as a laboratory tool for knocking down specific genes to study their function — now a standard technique in virtually every molecular biology lab. Item #1696

CONDITION & DETAILS: London: Macmillan & Co. Nature, Volume 391, No. 6669. Original Wraps. (10 x 7 inches; 250 x 175mm). Original paper wraps. Bearing the mail sticker of Robert R. Rofen, the American ichthyologist. Bright and clean inside and out. Fine condition in every way.

Price: $625.00