Liu, X., Jiang, F., Kalidas, S., Smith, D., Liu, Q. (2006). Dicer-2 and R2D2 coordinately bind siRNA to promote assembly of the siRISC complexes. RNA 12(8): 1514--1520.
FlyBase ID
FBrf0194713
Publication Type
Research paper
Abstract
In Drosophila melanogaster, the Dicer-2/R2D2 complex initiates RNA interference (RNAi) by processing long double-stranded RNA (dsRNA) into small interfering RNA (siRNA). Recent biochemical studies suggest that the Dcr-2/R2D2 complex also facilitates incorporation of siRNA into the RNA-induced silencing complex (siRISC). Here we present genetic evidence that R2D2 and Dcr-2 are both required for loading siRNA onto the siRISC complex. Consistent with this, only the Dcr-2/R2D2 complex, but neither Dcr-2 nor R2D2 alone, can efficiently interact with duplex siRNA. Furthermore, both dsRNA-binding domains of R2D2 are critical for binding to siRNA and promoting assembly of the siRISC complexes.
