Characterizing the roles of Cryphonectria parasitica RNA-dependent RNA polymerase-like genes in antiviral defense, viral recombination and transposon transcript accumulation.

ABSTRACT: An inducible RNA-silencing pathway, involving a single Dicer protein, DCL2, and a single Argonaute protein, AGL2, was recently shown to serve as an effective antiviral defense response in the chestnut blight fungus Cryphonectria parasitica. Eukaryotic RNA-dependent RNA polymerases (RdRPs) are frequently involved in transcriptional and posttranscriptional gene silencing and antiviral defense. We report here the identification and characterization of four RdRP genes (rdr1-4) in the C. parasitica genome. Sequence relationships with other eukaryotic RdRPs indicated that RDR1 and RDR2 were closely related to QDE-1, an RdRP involved in RNA silencing ("quelling") in Neurospora crassa, whereas RDR3 was more closely related to the meiotic silencing gene SAD-1 in N. crassa. The RdRP domain of RDR4,

SUBMITTER: Zhang DX 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4182546 | biostudies-literature | 2014

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature