Title
Endogenous siRNAs derived from transposons and mRNAs in Drosophila somatic cells
UMMS Affiliation
Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Pharmacology; Program in Molecular Medicine; Department of Molecular Genetics and Microbiology; Program in Bioinformatics and Integrative Biology; Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences
Publication Date
2008-04-12
Document Type
Article
Disciplines
Life Sciences | Medicine and Health Sciences
Abstract
Small interfering RNAs (siRNAs) direct RNA interference (RNAi) in eukaryotes. In flies, somatic cells produce siRNAs from exogenous double-stranded RNA (dsRNA) as a defense against viral infection. We identified endogenous siRNAs (endo-siRNAs), 21 nucleotides in length, that correspond to transposons and heterochromatic sequences in the somatic cells of Drosophila melanogaster. We also detected endo-siRNAs complementary to messenger RNAs (mRNAs); these siRNAs disproportionately mapped to the complementary regions of overlapping mRNAs predicted to form double-stranded RNA in vivo. Normal accumulation of somatic endo-siRNAs requires the siRNA-generating ribonuclease Dicer-2 and the RNAi effector protein Argonaute2 (Ago2). We propose that endo-siRNAs generated by the fly RNAi pathway silence selfish genetic elements in the soma, much as Piwi-interacting RNAs do in the germ line.
DOI of Published Version
10.1126/science.1157396
Source
Science. 2008 May 23;320(5879):1077-81. Epub 2008 Apr 10. Link to article on publisher's site
Journal/Book/Conference Title
Science (New York, N.Y.)
Related Resources
PubMed ID
18403677
Repository Citation
Ghildiyal M, Seitz H, Horwich MD, Li C, Du T, Lee S, Xu J, Kittler EL, Zapp ML, Weng Z, Zamore PD. (2008). Endogenous siRNAs derived from transposons and mRNAs in Drosophila somatic cells. GSBS Student Publications. https://doi.org/10.1126/science.1157396. Retrieved from https://escholarship.umassmed.edu/gsbs_sp/1606