Small RNAs and the control of transposons and viruses in Drosophila.
RNA interference (RNAi) - post-transcriptional gene silencing guided by small interfering RNA (siRNA) - is an important antiviral defense mechanism in insects and plants. Several recent studies in Drosophila identified endogenous siRNAs corresponding to transposons, to structured cellular transcripts and to overlapping convergent transcripts. In addition, one of these studies detected a large pool of Argonaute-2 associated siRNAs that mapped to the genome of flock house virus, a (+) RNA virus. Our bioinformatic analyses indicate that these viral siRNAs mapped in roughly equal proportions to both (+) and (-) viral RNA strands. These reports attribute an important function to RNAi in the defense against parasitic nucleic acids (viruses and transposable elements) and provide a novel mechanism for RNAi-based regulation of cellular gene expression. Furthermore, the detection of viral siRNAs of both (+) and (-) polarity implicates double-stranded RNA replication intermediates as the Dicer substrates that mediate antiviral defense.
van Rij
Ronald P
RP
Department of Medical Microbiology, Radboud University Nijmegen Medical Centre, Nijmegen Centre for Molecular Life Sciences, 6500 HB Nijmegen, The Netherlands. r.vanrij@ncmls.ru.nl
Berezikov
Eugene
E
D000818:Animals; D004251:DNA Transposable Elements; D004330:Drosophila / Q000235:genetics* / Q000821:virology*; D006790:Host-Parasite Interactions; D034622:RNA Interference; D012328:RNA Viruses / Q000235:genetics / Q000502:physiology*; D034741:RNA, Small Interfering / Q000235:genetics*
D004251:DNA Transposable Elements; D034741:RNA, Small Interfering