Editor's Summary

5 June 2008

Endo-siRNAs in Drosophila: the endogenous pathway

In this work, Czech et al. identify a new class of small RNAs in Drosophila: endogenous short interfering RNAs (endo-siRNAs). These RNAs are present in both somatic and gonadal cells. Their processing is different than that of miRNAs or piRNAs; it requires Dcr2 and, unusually, Loqs, the Dcr1 partner, rather than R2D2, the usual partner of Dcr2. The processed endo-siRNAs are the first small RNAs found to associate preferentially with the Argonaute protein AGO2, and this complex targets genes that encode proteins as well as mobile elements.

Letter: An endogenous small interfering RNA pathway in Drosophila

Benjamin Czech, Colin D. Malone, Rui Zhou, Alexander Stark, Catherine Schlingeheyde, Monica Dus, Norbert Perrimon, Manolis Kellis, James A. Wohlschlegel, Ravi Sachidanandam, Gregory J. Hannon & Julius Brennecke

doi:10.1038/nature07007

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