RNA interference, growth and differentiation appear normal in African trypanosomes lacking Tudor staphylococcal nuclease

Sam Alsford, Louise E. Kemp, Taemi Kawahara, David Horn

    Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

    6 Citations (Scopus)

    Abstract

    Ribonucleases play important roles in the RNA interference (RNAi) pathway. The Dicer endonuclease converts double-stranded (ds)RNA into small interfering (si)RNA and the Slicer endonuclease, as a component of the RNA induced silencing complex (RISC), cleaves mRNA. Tudor staphylococcal nuclease (Tudor-SN) is another component of RISC in humans, flies and nematodes and is therefore implicated in the RNAi pathway. Here, we explore the potential role of African trypanosome Tudor-SN in RNAi. First, we assembled tudor-sn null mutants and showed that the gene is dispensable for normal growth and for differentiation. Next, we developed an inducible RNAi reporter system and demonstrated that Tudor-SN is dispensable for RNAi. The kinetics of mRNA knock-down, protein knock-down and protein recovery following inactivation of dsRNA expression are all unperturbed in the absence of Tudor-SN. We conclude that if this nuclease plays a role in the destruction or processing of dsRNA, mRNA or siRNA in the RNAi pathway, it is likely a minor one. (C) 2010 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

    Original languageEnglish
    Pages (from-to)70-73
    Number of pages4
    JournalMolecular and Biochemical Parasitology
    Volume174
    Issue number1
    DOIs
    Publication statusPublished - Nov 2010

    Keywords

    • ELEGANS
    • REARRANGEMENTS
    • RISC
    • CLEAVAGE
    • SN
    • DOUBLE-STRANDED-RNA
    • BRUCEI
    • PROMOTES
    • DICER
    • Ribonuclease
    • ARGONAUTE
    • EXPRESSION
    • Trypanosoma brucei

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