The Antiviral RNA Interference Response Provides Resistance to Lethal Arbovirus Infection and Vertical Transmission in Caenorhabditis elegans.

ABSTRACT: The recent discovery of the positive-sense single-stranded RNA (ssRNA) Orsay virus (OV) as a natural pathogen of the nematode Caenorhabditis elegans has stimulated interest in exploring virus-nematode interactions. However, OV infection is restricted to a small number of intestinal cells, even in nematodes defective in their antiviral RNA interference (RNAi) response, and is neither lethal nor vertically transmitted. Using a fluorescent reporter strain of the negative-sense ssRNA vesicular stomatitis virus (VSV), we show that microinjection of VSV particles leads to a dose-dependent, muscle tissue-tropic, lethal infection in C. elegans. Furthermore, we find nematodes deficient for components of the antiviral RNAi pathway, such as Dicer-related helicase 1 (DRH-1), to display hypersusceptibi

SUBMITTER: Gammon DB 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC5446062 | biostudies-literature | 2017 Mar

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature