title: Antiviral silencing in animals.
abstract: RNA silencing or RNA interference (RNAi) refers to the small RNA-guided gene silencing mechanism conserved in a wide range of eukaryotic organisms from plants to mammals. As part of this special issue on the biology, mechanisms and applications of RNAi, here we review the recent advances on defining a role of RNAi in the responses of invertebrate and vertebrate animals to virus infection. Approximately 40 miRNAs and 10 RNAi suppressors encoded by diverse mammalian viruses have been identified. Assays used for the identification of viral suppressors and possible biological functions of both viral miRNAs and suppressors are discussed. We propose that herpes viral miRNAs may act as specificity factors to initiate heterochromatin assembly of the latent viral DNA genome in the nucleus.
authors.affiliation: Center for Plant Cell Biology, Institute for Integrative Genome Biology, Department of Plant Pathology, University of California, Riverside, CA 92521, USA.
authors.forename: Hong-Wei
authors.initials: HW
authors.lastname: Li
authors.forename: Shou-Wei
authors.initials: SW
authors.lastname: Ding
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D000998:Antiviral Agents / Q000494:pharmacology*; D001103:Arboviruses / Q000235:genetics; D001181:Arthropods; D017173:Caenorhabditis elegans; D004330:Drosophila / Q000821:virology; D020868:Gene Silencing; D006564:Herpesviridae / Q000235:genetics; D006801:Humans; D035683:MicroRNAs / Q000737:chemistry; D009154:Mutation; D010942:Plant Viruses / Q000378:metabolism; D034622:RNA Interference
chemical_list: D000998:Antiviral Agents; D035683:MicroRNAs