Monday, February 2, 2009

dsRNA Transport & Systemic RNAi

What am I reading today? Some reports on SID-1, an RNA transporter from C. elegans.

Feinberg & Hunter (2003) Transport of dsRNA into cells by the transmembrane protein SID-1. Science 301: 1545-1547. PubMed ID 12970568.

Shih et al. (2009) The SID-1 double-stranded RNA transporter is not selective for dsRNA length. RNA. DOI 10.1261/rna.1286409. PubMed ID 19155320.

Jose et al. (2009) Export of RNAi silencing for C. elegans does not require the RNA channel SID-1. PNAS.  PubMed ID 19168628.

Why am I reading these? (1) Introduction of SID-1 into Drosophila cells can sensitize them to dsRNA treatment, presumably by facilitating uptake. (2) In C. elegans, RNAi effects spread systemically, a phenomenon not observed in Drosophila. But it looks like SID-1 is not the whole answer when it comes to systemic spread.

Related of interest:

Hunter et al. (2006) Systemic RNAi in Caenorhabditis elegans. CSH Symp Quant Biol. 71:95-100. PubMed ID 17381285.

Tomoyasu et al. (2008) Exploring systemic RNA interference in insects: a genome-wide survey for RNAi genes in Tribolium. Genome Biol 9(1):R10. PubMed ID 18201385. Free full text at Genome Biology.

1 comment:

Stephanie Mohr said...

A report e-published February 2009 suggests evidence for systemic RNAi effects in Drosophila in response to viral infections.

Saleh et al. (2009) Antiviral immunity in Drosophila requires systemic RNA interference spread. Nature. PubMed ID19204732.