RNA silencing is a gene regulation process present in all eukaryotic organisms. Through this complex mechanism, organisms are able to target specific RNA sequences for degradation or expression. Micro RNA (miRNA) and small interfering RNA (siRNA) are the key instigators of RNA silencing. These 21-24 nucleotide strands are the products of diced double-stranded RNA (dsRNA) which can originate from the host organism as miRNA or can originate from a variety of other sources such as viral dsRNA as siRNA. These dsRNA segments are incorporated into an RNA induced silencing complex (RISC) for gene regulation. Eukaryotic organisms have adapted RNA silencing as an antiviral defense mechanism by targeting viral dsRNA. As the virus invades, the viral genomic dsRNA is diced and incorporated into RISC to silence invading viral RNA that has a perfect or near perfect base matching with the instigating siRNA. In response, viruses have developed a variety of counter-defense mechanisms including protein based viral suppressors of RNA silencing (VSR). One strategy is to bind and sequester siRNA to prevent its incorporation into RISC. In this study fluorescence polarization experiments are used to compare the specificity of a suppressor protein for shared RNA structures within both miRNAs and siRNAs.

Viral silencing suppressor specificity for shared structures of miRNA and siRNA

253rd National Meeting (2017)

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