Viruses, Vol. 12, Pages 748: aBravo Is a Novel Aedes aegypti Antiviral Protein that Interacts with, but Acts Independently of, the Exogenous siRNA Pathway Effector Dicer 2

Viruses, Vol. 12, Pages 748: aBravo Is a Novel Aedes aegypti Antiviral Protein that Interacts with, but Acts Independently of, the Exogenous siRNA Pathway Effector Dicer 2 Viruses doi: 10.3390/v12070748 Authors: Margus Varjak Rommel J. Gestuveo Richard Burchmore Esther Schnettler Alain Kohl Mosquitoes, such as Aedes aegypti, can transmit arboviruses to humans. The exogenous short interfering RNA (exo-siRNA) pathway plays a major antiviral role in controlling virus infection in mosquito cells. The Dicer 2 (Dcr2) nuclease is a key effector protein in this pathway, which cleaves viral double-stranded RNA into virus-derived siRNAs that are further loaded onto an effector called Argonaute 2 (Ago2), which as part of the multiprotein RNA-induced silencing complex (RISC) targets and cleaves viral RNA. In order to better understand the effector protein Dcr2, proteomics experiments were conducted to identify interacting cellular partners. We identified several known interacting partners including Ago2, as well as two novel and previously uncharacterized Ae. aegypti proteins. The role of these two proteins was further investigated, and their interactions with Dcr2 verified by co-immunoprecipitation. Interestingly, despite their ability to interact with Ago2 and Piwi4, neither of these proteins was found to affect exo-siRNA silencing in a reporter assay. However, one of these proteins, Q0IFK9, subsequently called aBravo (aedine broadly active antiviral protein), was found...
Source: Viruses - Category: Virology Authors: Tags: Article Source Type: research
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