Skip to main content

Thank you for visiting nature.com. You are using a browser version with limited support for CSS. To obtain the best experience, we recommend you use a more up to date browser (or turn off compatibility mode in Internet Explorer). In the meantime, to ensure continued support, we are displaying the site without styles and JavaScript.

  • News & Views
  • Published:

How to become your own worst enemy

Persistence is a poorly understood yet widespread outcome of viral infection. A study of RNA viruses in flies now shows that viral fragments endogenized as cDNA during the reverse transcription of retrotransposons provide immunity based on RNA-mediated interference in persistently infected cells.

This is a preview of subscription content, access via your institution

Access options

Rent or buy this article

Prices vary by article type

from$1.95

to$39.95

Prices may be subject to local taxes which are calculated during checkout

Figure 1: A model for the immune state of persistently infected S2 cells.

Katie vicari

References

  1. Goic, B. et al. Nat. Immunol. 14, 396–403 (2013).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  2. Boldogh, I. Albrecht, T. & Porter, D. in Medical Microbiology 4th edn. (ed. Baron, S.) Ch. 46 (The University of Texas Medical Branch at Galveston, 1996).

    Google Scholar 

  3. Voinnet, O. Nat. Rev. Genet. 6, 206–220 (2005).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  4. Li, H., Li, W.X. & Ding, S.W. Science 296, 1319–1321 (2002).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  5. Geuking, M.B. et al. Science 323, 393–396 (2009).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  6. Klenerman, P., Hengartner, H. & Zinkernagel, R.M. Nature 390, 298–301 (1997).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  7. Wessler, S.R. Curr. Biol. 6, 959–961 (1996).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  8. Dunoyer, P. et al. Science 328, 912–916 (2010).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  9. Saleh, M.C. et al. Nature 458, 346–350 (2009).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  10. Wingard, S.A. J. Agric. Res. 37, 127–153 (1928).

    Google Scholar 

  11. Ratcliff, F., Harrison, B.D. & Baulcombe, D.C. Science 276, 1558–1560 (1997).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  12. Wu, Q. et al. Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA 107, 1606–1611 (2010)

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

Authors

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Olivier Voinnet.

Ethics declarations

Competing interests

The author declares no competing financial interests.

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Cite this article

Voinnet, O. How to become your own worst enemy. Nat Immunol 14, 315–317 (2013). https://doi.org/10.1038/ni.2571

Download citation

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/ni.2571

Search

Quick links

Nature Briefing

Sign up for the Nature Briefing newsletter — what matters in science, free to your inbox daily.

Get the most important science stories of the day, free in your inbox. Sign up for Nature Briefing