Answer:
disrupt gene expression by cleaving mRNAs that are complementary to the guide strand of the RNA duplex that was introduced
Step-by-step explanation:
The RNA-induced silencing complex (RISC) is a ribonucleoprotein complex composed of proteins that associate with regulatory small non-coding RNAs (sncRNAs) such as, for example, microRNAs (miRNAs) and small interfering RNAs (siRNAs) in order to regulate gene expression by the RNA interference (RNAi) pathway. These sncRNAs (around 18-30 nucleotides in length) are complementary or nearly complementary to messenger RNAs, thereby they can bind to target mRNA sequences in order to trigger RNAi via mRNA degradation, translational repression, etc. The core component of the RISC complex is an evolutionary conserved Argonaute (Ago) protein that cleaves target mRNAs.