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Letter

Nature Genetics 37, 906–910 (1 August 2005) | doi:10.1038/ng1611

Short double-stranded RNA induces transcriptional gene silencing in human cancer cells in the absence of DNA methylation

Angela H Ting , Kornel E Schuebel , James G Herman & Stephen B Baylin

Double-stranded RNA molecules targeted to gene promoter regions can induce transcriptional gene silencing in a DNA cytosine methylation–dependent manner in plants (RNA-dependent DNA methylation). Whether a similar mechanism exists in mammalian systems is a vital and controversial issue.