RNA-mediated interference and reverse transcription control the persistence of RNA viruses in the insect model Drosophila

Bertsy Goic (1) , Nicolas Vodovar (1) , Juan A Mondotte (1) , Clément Monot (2) , Lionel Frangeul (1) , Hervé Blanc (1) , Valérie Gausson (1) , Jorge Vera-Otarola (2) , Gaël Cristofari (2) , Maria-Carla P Saleh (1)

1 Virus et Interférence ARN - Viruses and RNA Interference
2 IRCAN - Institut de Recherche sur le Cancer et le Vieillissement

How persistent viral infections are established and maintained is widely debated and remains poorly understood. We found here that the persistence of RNA virus in Drosophila melanogaster was achieved through the combined action of cellular reverse-transcriptase activity and the RNA interference (RNAi) pathway. Fragments of diverse RNA viruses were reverse-transcribed early during infection, which resulted in DNA forms embedded in retrotransposon sequences. Those virus-retrotransposon DNA chimeras produced transcripts processed by the RNAi machinery, which in turn inhibited viral replication. Conversely, inhibition of reverse transcription hindered the appearance of chimeric DNA and prevented persistence. Our results identify a cooperative function for retrotransposons and antiviral RNAi in the control of lethal acute infection for the establishment of viral persistence. The most well-characterized viral infections are those with human or economic effects. However, regardless of the organism under consideration, there are viruses able to infect that organism. Viral fossil registers highlight the long coevolutionary history between virus and

Domaines: Virologie; Immunité innée; Maladies infectieuses

Bertsy Goic, Nicolas Vodovar, Juan A Mondotte, Clément Monot, Lionel Frangeul, et al.. RNA-mediated interference and reverse transcription control the persistence of RNA viruses in the insect model Drosophila. Nature Immunology, 2013, 14 (4), pp.396-403. ⟨10.1038/ni.2542⟩. ⟨pasteur-01957212⟩