User:WeepingBritney/RNAi prof review

The RNA interference entry for Wikipedia was interesting to review. In many ways, it is well organized and contains a good amount of interesting material. It was clearly written by a number of different authors, hence the quality of the information presented does vary. In general, the information presented is quite good and would be of value to upper level undergraduate students. Unfortunately, one of the weakest presentations is on the cellular mechanism of the RNA interference pathway, which substantially decreases the overall usefulness of the entry. In addition, there are very few useful figures. With no figures, charts or tables, the information is much more difficult for the typical undergrad to understand.

Fortunately, the full article is very well referenced, making follow up research much easier. Based on the reference list alone, I would recommend this as a starting place for undergraduates who need to understand the RNAi pathway. The article does touch on all of the important aspects of RNAi, including its relationship to miRNAs, biological function, evolution, technological applications and history. Again, because each section is very well referenced, it would be very useful as a starting point for more in depth study. In addition, the reference list was very up-to-date.

Specific comments for each section follows.

Introduction
The introduction was very nicely written. It is concise and the presented at a level appropriate for advanced undergraduate students (juniors and seniors).

Cellular mechanism
Unfortuately, this was by far the weakest section. The contents need significant editing in terms of “grammar”, so it is difficult to read. Full paragraphs of information are written using only 3 – 4 sentences, making the concepts difficult to understand. The authors use no graphics or figures to summarize the important steps. This section was often difficult for me to understand, and I know a lot about the mechanism. The figures included for this section were not helpful. They included only the structures of the dicer and argonaute proteins.

Relationship to microRNA
This section must have been written by the same author as the Cellular mechanism. Again, the grammar is atrocious, with numerous run-on sentences. No figures presented.

Biological functions
This section was very nicely written and presented. It clearly describes the biological relevance of the RNA interference pathway in both immunity and genome maintenance. The text flows nicely, and it is easily understood. Very good for undergrads.

Evolution and Technological applications
Both of these sections were well written but at a higher level than presented in the rest of the article. These sections would be much more difficult for undergraduates to understand, so I would rate them as less useful.