Viral Infection and Stress Affect Protein Levels of Dicer 2 and Argonaute 2 in Drosophila melanogaster

Alessandro Torri (1) , Vanesa Mongelli (1) , Juan A Mondotte (1) , Maria-Carla Saleh (1)

1 Virus et Interférence ARN - Viruses and RNA Interference

The small interfering RNA (siRNA) pathway of Drosophila melanogaster, mainly characterized by the activity of the enzymes Dicer 2 (Dcr-2) and Argonaute 2 (Ago-2), has been described as the major antiviral immune response. Several lines of evidence demonstrated its pivotal role in conferring resistance against viral infections at cellular and systemic level. However, only few studies have addressed the regulation and induction of this system upon infection and knowledge on stability and turnover of the siRNA pathway core components transcripts and proteins remains scarce. In the current work, we explore whether the siRNA pathway is regulated following viral infection in D. melanogaster. After infecting different fly strains with two different viruses and modes of infection, we observed changes in Dcr-2 and Ago-2 protein concentrations that were not related with changes in gene expression. This response was observed either upon viral infection or upon stress-related experimental procedure, indicating a bivalent function of the siRNA system operating as a general gene regulation rather than a specific antiviral system.

Mots clés: RNA interference insect immunity gene regulation viral infection antiviral response protein regulation; RNA interference; insect immunity; gene regulation; viral infection; antiviral response; protein regulation

Domaines: Sciences du Vivant [q-bio]

Alessandro Torri, Vanesa Mongelli, Juan A Mondotte, Maria-Carla Saleh. Viral Infection and Stress Affect Protein Levels of Dicer 2 and Argonaute 2 in Drosophila melanogaster. Frontiers in Immunology, 2020, 11, pp.362. ⟨10.3389/fimmu.2020.00362⟩. ⟨pasteur-04086900⟩