Li Hongwei, Li Wan Xiang, Ding Shou Wei
Department of Plant Pathology and Center for Plant Cell Biology, University of California, Riverside, CA 92521, USA.
Science. 2002 May 17;296(5571):1319-21. doi: 10.1126/science.1070948.
RNA silencing is a sequence-specific RNA degradation mechanism that is operational in plants and animals. Here, we show that flock house virus (FHV) is both an initiator and a target of RNA silencing in Drosophila host cells and that FHV infection requires suppression of RNA silencing by an FHV-encoded protein, B2. These findings establish RNA silencing as an adaptive antiviral defense in animal cells. B2 also inhibits RNA silencing in transgenic plants, providing evidence for a conserved RNA silencing pathway in the plant and animal kingdoms.
RNA沉默是一种在植物和动物中起作用的序列特异性RNA降解机制。在这里，我们表明禽群病毒（FHV）既是果蝇宿主细胞中RNA沉默的引发者，也是其靶点，并且FHV感染需要一种由FHV编码的蛋白B2来抑制RNA沉默。这些发现确立了RNA沉默作为动物细胞中的一种适应性抗病毒防御机制。B2也能抑制转基因植物中的RNA沉默，这为植物和动物界中保守的RNA沉默途径提供了证据。
