Negative sense RNA is the kind of RNA that is the genetic blueprint of the influenza virus. RNA, like DNA, carries genetic information in a sequence of three letters (the genetic code). In our bodies, DNA is double-stranded, with each strand a 'code mirror image' of the other. Thus when the cell replicates, the two strands separate and each makes a mirror image copy so the result is two new double-strands just like the first one. In the influenza virus, however, there is a single-strand of RNA.

RNA product of mic (mRNA-interfering complementary RNA) gene s that regulates another gene by base pairing with and thus preventing translation from its mRNA.

An RNA molecule that can hybridize to an mRNA molecule. Hybridization of an antisense RNA molecule to the translation start sites on an mRNA prevents the initiation of translation. For example, an antisense RNA is involved in the regulation of transposase expression from Tn10.