Xia Junming, Fei Shigang, Wu Hongyun, Yang Yifan, Yu Wensheng, Zhang Mengmeng, Guo Yiyao, Swevers Luc, Sun Jingchen, Feng Min
Guangdong Provincial Key Laboratory of Agro-Animal Genomics and Molecular Breeding, College of Animal Science, South China Agricultural University, Guangzhou, China.
Insect Molecular Genetics and Biotechnology, National Center for Scientific Research Demokritos, Institute of Biosciences and Applications, Athens, Greece.
Insect Sci. 2023 Oct;30(5):1378-1392. doi: 10.1111/1744-7917.13160. Epub 2023 Jan 13.
The Piwi-interacting RNA (piRNA) pathway has been shown to be involved in the antiviral defense against RNA viruses, especially in mosquitoes, but its universality has been questioned. Here, we used the Bombyx mori nucleopolyhedrovirus (BmNPV) -infected silkworm as a model to explore the effects of the key factors of piRNA pathway, BmAgo3 and Siwi, on replication of a large DNA virus (belonging to the family of Baculoviridae). We demonstrated that BmAgo3 and Siwi could promote the replication of BmNPV through both overexpression and knockdown experiments in BmN cell lines and silkworm larvae. In addition, we also studied the effect of PIWI-class genes on Autographa californica nucleopolyhedrovirus (AcMNPV) replication in the Spodoptera frugiperda cell line Sf9. By knocking down the expression of PIWI-class genes in Sf9, we found that Piwi-like-1 and Piwi-like-2-3 could inhibit AcMNPV replication, while Piwi-like-4-5 promoted virus replication. Our study provides compelling evidence that the piRNA pathway affects host infection by exogenous viruses in Lepidoptera. Also, our results reflect the diversity of the roles of PIWI-class genes in virus infection of the host across species. This study is the first to explore the interaction of PIWI-class proteins with DNA viruses, providing new insights into the functional roles of the piRNA pathway.
Piwi相互作用RNA（piRNA）途径已被证明参与针对RNA病毒的抗病毒防御，尤其是在蚊子中，但它的普遍性受到了质疑。在这里，我们以感染家蚕核型多角体病毒（BmNPV）的家蚕为模型，探讨piRNA途径的关键因子BmAgo3和Siwi对大型DNA病毒（属于杆状病毒科）复制的影响。我们通过在BmN细胞系和家蚕幼虫中进行过表达和敲低实验证明，BmAgo3和Siwi可促进BmNPV的复制。此外，我们还研究了PIWI类基因对苜蓿银纹夜蛾核型多角体病毒（AcMNPV）在草地贪夜蛾细胞系Sf9中复制的影响。通过敲低Sf9中PIWI类基因的表达，我们发现类Piwi-1和类Piwi-2-3可抑制AcMNPV的复制，而类Piwi-4-5则促进病毒复制。我们的研究提供了令人信服的证据，证明piRNA途径影响鳞翅目昆虫中外源病毒对宿主的感染。此外，我们的结果反映了PIWI类基因在跨物种宿主病毒感染中作用的多样性。本研究首次探索了PIWI类蛋白与DNA病毒的相互作用，为piRNA途径的功能作用提供了新的见解。
