In \(1998,\) future Nobel laureates Andrew Fire and Craig Mello, and colleagues, published an article in Nature entitled, "Potent and specific genetic interference by double-stranded RNA in Caenorhabditis elegans." Explain how RNAi is both "potent and specific."

Question: Explain how RNA interference (RNAi) is both potent and specific based on the provided solution. Answer: RNA interference (RNAi) is a biological process that inhibits gene expression by neutralizing targeted mRNA molecules. It is considered potent because it can effectively and efficiently inhibit gene expression, even with a small amount of dsRNA introduced, leading to a significant reduction in the expression of the target gene. RNAi is also specific because it can selectively inhibit the expression of a particular gene based on sequence complementarity. The dsRNA molecules can be designed to target specific mRNA sequences, ensuring that only the mRNA molecules with the matching sequence are targeted for degradation or translation repression.