piRNA pathway is not required for antiviral defense in Drosophila melanogaster

Since its discovery, RNA interference has been identified as involved in many different cellular processes, and as a natural antiviral response in plants, nematodes, and insects. In insects, the small interfering RNA (siRNA) pathway is the major antiviral response. In recent years, the Piwi-interact...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences - PNAS 2016-07, Vol.113 (29), p.E4218-E4227
Main Authors: Petit, Marine, Mongelli, Vanesa, Frangeul, Lionel, Blanc, Hervé, Jiggins, Francis, Saleh, Maria-Carla
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Animals
Biochemistry, Molecular Biology
Biodiversity
Biological Sciences
Cellular biology
Defense mechanisms
Drosophila melanogaster
Drosophila melanogaster - immunology
Drosophila melanogaster - virology
Fruits
Host-Pathogen Interactions
Immunology
Innate immunity
Insects
Life Sciences
Microbiology and Parasitology
Molecular biology
Nematoda
PNAS Plus
Populations and Evolution
Quantitative Methods
Ribonucleic acid
RNA
RNA Interference
RNA, Small Interfering - genetics
Virology
Viruses
Viruses - genetics
Viruses - pathogenicity
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Summary:Since its discovery, RNA interference has been identified as involved in many different cellular processes, and as a natural antiviral response in plants, nematodes, and insects. In insects, the small interfering RNA (siRNA) pathway is the major antiviral response. In recent years, the Piwi-interacting RNA (piRNA) pathway also has been implicated in antiviral defense in mosquitoes infected with arboviruses. Using Drosophila melanogaster and an array of viruses that infect the fruit fly acutely or persistently or are vertically transmitted through the germ line, we investigated in detail the extent to which the piRNA pathway contributes to antiviral defense in adult flies. Following virus infection, the survival and viral titers of Piwi, Aubergine, Argonaute-3, and Zucchini mutant flies were similar to those of wild type flies. Using next-generation sequencing of small RNAs from wild type and siRNA mutant flies, we showed that no viral-derived piRNAs were produced in fruit flies during different types of viral infection. Our study provides the first evidence, to our knowledge, that the piRNA pathway does not play a major role in antiviral defense in adult Drosophila and demonstrates that viral-derived piRNA production depends on the biology of the host–virus combination rather than being part of a general antiviral process in insects.
ISSN:0027-8424
1091-6490
DOI:10.1073/pnas.1607952113