Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
Review
. 2016 Sep;7(5):575-88.
doi: 10.1002/wrna.1351. Epub 2016 Apr 5.

The evolving world of small RNAs from RNA viruses

Mei-Ling Li  1 , Kuo-Feng Weng  2 , Shin-Ru Shih  2   3   4   5 , Gary Brewer  1
Affiliations
Review

The evolving world of small RNAs from RNA viruses

Mei-Ling Li et al. Wiley Interdiscip Rev RNA. 2016 Sep.

Abstract

RNA virus infection in plants and invertebrates can produce virus-derived small RNAs. These RNAs share features with host endogenous small interfering RNAs (siRNAs). They can potentially mediate RNA interference (RNAi) and related RNA silencing pathways, resulting in specific antiviral defense. Although most RNA silencing components such as Dicer, Ago2, and RISC are conserved among eukaryotic hosts, whether RNA virus infection in mammals can generate functional small RNAs that act in antiviral defense remains under discussion. Here, we review recent studies on the molecular and biochemical features of viral siRNAs and other virus-derived small RNAs from infected plants, arthropods, nematodes, and vertebrates and discuss the genetic pathways for their biogenesis and their roles in antiviral activity. WIREs RNA 2016, 7:575-588. doi: 10.1002/wrna.1351 For further resources related to this article, please visit the WIREs website.

PubMed Disclaimer

Figures

Fig 1
Fig 1. General antiviral RNAi pathways and virus-encoded RNAi suppressors
RNA virus-encoded RNAi suppressors target steps in the arthropod siRNA pathway (A) and the plant siRNA pathway (B). During viral replication, double-stranded RNAs (dsRNAs) are targeted by Dicer-2 (DCR2) in arthropod cells and Dicer-like protein (DCL) in plant cells and are cleaved into small fragments of dsRNA. The 3′-end of a siRNA is methylated (m) at the indicated steps in arthropod and plant cells. One strand of the small dsRNA is loaded into Argonaute protein (Ago) complexes and combined with other proteins to form the RNA-induced silencing complex (RISC). The guide siRNA within RISC forms base pairs with viral RNA to elicit RNA silencing via RNA degradation. The plant host can amplify siRNAs by the activity of cellular RNA-dependent RNA polymerase (RDRP). Viruses and their respective RNAi suppressor proteins (red ovals) target the indicated steps within the RNAi pathways depicted. For arthropods, these include the following viruses: cricket paralysis virus (CrPV), Culex Y virus (CYV), Drosophila C virus (DCV), dengue virus (DENV), flock house virus (FHV), Nodamura virus (NoV), sfRNA from flavivirus infection, and Wuhan nodavirus (WhNV). For plants, these include the following viruses: cucumber mosaic virus (CMV), polerovirus, sweet potato mild mottle virus (SPMMV), tombusvirus, tospovirus, and turnip crinkle virus (TCV).
Fig 1
Fig 1. General antiviral RNAi pathways and virus-encoded RNAi suppressors
RNA virus-encoded RNAi suppressors target steps in the arthropod siRNA pathway (A) and the plant siRNA pathway (B). During viral replication, double-stranded RNAs (dsRNAs) are targeted by Dicer-2 (DCR2) in arthropod cells and Dicer-like protein (DCL) in plant cells and are cleaved into small fragments of dsRNA. The 3′-end of a siRNA is methylated (m) at the indicated steps in arthropod and plant cells. One strand of the small dsRNA is loaded into Argonaute protein (Ago) complexes and combined with other proteins to form the RNA-induced silencing complex (RISC). The guide siRNA within RISC forms base pairs with viral RNA to elicit RNA silencing via RNA degradation. The plant host can amplify siRNAs by the activity of cellular RNA-dependent RNA polymerase (RDRP). Viruses and their respective RNAi suppressor proteins (red ovals) target the indicated steps within the RNAi pathways depicted. For arthropods, these include the following viruses: cricket paralysis virus (CrPV), Culex Y virus (CYV), Drosophila C virus (DCV), dengue virus (DENV), flock house virus (FHV), Nodamura virus (NoV), sfRNA from flavivirus infection, and Wuhan nodavirus (WhNV). For plants, these include the following viruses: cucumber mosaic virus (CMV), polerovirus, sweet potato mild mottle virus (SPMMV), tombusvirus, tospovirus, and turnip crinkle virus (TCV).
See this image and copyright information in PMC

Similar articles

See all similar articles

Cited by

See all "Cited by" articles

References

    1. Dobos P, Hill BJ, Hallett R, Kells DT, Becht H, Teninges D. Biophysical and biochemical characterization of five animal viruses with bisegmented double-stranded RNA genomes. J Virol. 1979;32:593–605. - PMC - PubMed
    1. Myles KM, Wiley MR, Morazzani EM, Adelman ZN. Alphavirus-derived small RNAs modulate pathogenesis in disease vector mosquitoes. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 2008;105:19938–19943. - PMC - PubMed
    1. Fragkoudis R, Attarzadeh-Yazdi G, Nash AA, Fazakerley JK, Kohl A. Advances in dissecting mosquito innate immune responses to arbovirus infection. The Journal of general virology. 2009;90:2061–2072. - PubMed
    1. Sabin LR, Zheng Q, Thekkat P, Yang J, Hannon GJ, Gregory BD, Tudor M, Cherry S. Dicer-2 processes diverse viral RNA species. PLoS One. 2013;8:e55458. - PMC - PubMed
    1. Weng KF, Hung CT, Hsieh PT, Li ML, Chen GW, Kung YA, Huang PN, Kuo RL, Chen LL, Lin JY, et al. A cytoplasmic RNA virus generates functional viral small RNAs and regulates viral IRES activity in mammalian cells. Nucleic Acids Res. 2014;42:12789–12805. - PMC - PubMed

Publication types