Title: gene silencing
Long Title: IUPAC Gold Book - gene silencing
DOI: 10.1351/goldbook.10752
Status: current

Definition
Prevention of the expression of a specific gene.

Note
Gene silencing may occur by natural genetic or epigenetic processes, or by experimental intervention, as in gene targeting knockout mutation, or by RNA interference.

Related Terms
- RNA interference: https://goldbook.iupac.org/terms/view/11187
- gene targeting: https://goldbook.iupac.org/terms/view/10753
- knockout mutation: https://goldbook.iupac.org/terms/view/10878

Source
- PAC, 2016, 88, 713. 'Glossary of terms used in developmental and reproductive toxicology (IUPAC Recommendations 2016)' on page 759 (https://doi.org/10.1515/pac-2015-1202)

Other Outputs
- html: https://goldbook.iupac.org/terms/view/10752/html
- json: https://goldbook.iupac.org/terms/view/10752/json
- xml: https://goldbook.iupac.org/terms/view/10752/xml

Citation: Citation: 'gene silencing' in IUPAC Compendium of Chemical Terminology, 5th ed. International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry; 2025. Online version 5.0.0, 2025. 10.1351/goldbook.10752
License: The IUPAC Gold Book is licensed under Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike CC BY-SA 4.0 International (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/) for individual terms.
Collection: If you are interested in licensing the Gold Book for commercial use, please contact the IUPAC Executive Director at executivedirector@iupac.org .
Disclaimer: The International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry (IUPAC) is continuously reviewing and, where needed, updating terms in the Compendium of Chemical Terminology (the IUPAC Gold Book). Users of these terms are encouraged to include the version of a term with its use and to check regularly for updates to term definitions that you are using.
Accessed: 2026-06-24T23:44:04+00:00