In silico selection of functional RNA molecules.

Ribonucleic acid (RNA) molecules combine the coding potential of deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) with various outwardly visible functions. RNA can be considered as a molecular unit of genotype and phenotype, and this concept has led to the hypothesis of a prebiotic world entirely dominated by RNA. In the postbiotic world, RNA is involved in all of the vital steps of information transfer from genes to gene products, and might intervene in gene expression and many other biological functions, either positively or negatively. RNA molecules have demonstrated tremendous potential as drug targets and drug candidates in the pharmaceutical and biotechnology industries, and are key components in a number of important processes, including microarray-based transcriptome analyses, functional target validation using antisense nucleic acids or short-interfering RNA (siRNA), and RNA-based drug development. The success of these significant but costly processes depends upon intelligent functional RNA design and the development of high-throughput compatible in silico selection tools and filters.