Molecular basis for asymmetry sensing of siRNAs by the Drosophila Loqs-PD/Dcr-2 complex in RNA interference

Tants, Jan-Niklas; Fesser, Stephanie; Kern, Thomas; Stehle, Ralf; Geerlof, Arie; Wunderlich, Christoph; Jün, Michael; Hartlmüller, Christoph; Böttcher, Romy; Kunzelmann, Stefan; Lange, Oliver; Kreutz, Christoph; Förstemann, Klaus und Sattler, Michael (2017): Molecular basis for asymmetry sensing of siRNAs by the Drosophila Loqs-PD/Dcr-2 complex in RNA interference. In: Nucleic Acids Research, Vol. 45, No. 21: pp. 12536-12550

Abstract

RNA interference defends against RNA viruses and retro-elements within an organism's genome. It is triggered by duplex siRNAs, of which one strand is selected to confer sequence-specificity to the RNA induced silencing complex (RISC). In Drosophila, Dicer-2 (Dcr-2) and the double-stranded RNA binding domain (dsRBD) protein R2D2 form the RISC loading complex (RLC) and select one strand of exogenous siRNAs according to the relative thermodynamic stability of base-pairing at either end. Through genome editing we demonstrate that Loqs-PD, the Drosophila homolog of human TAR RNA binding protein (TRBP) and a paralog of R2D2, forms an alternative RLC with Dcr-2 that is required for strand choice of endogenous siRNAs in S2 cells. Two canonical dsRBDs in Loqs-PD bind to siRNAs with enhanced affinity compared to miRNA/miRNA* duplexes. Structural analysis, NMR and biophysical experiments indicate that the Loqs-PD dsRBDs can slide along the RNA duplex to the ends of the siRNA. A moderate but no-table binding preference for the thermodynamically more stable siRNA end by Loqs-PD alone is greatly amplified in complex with Dcr-2 to initiate strand discrimination by asymmetry sensing in the RLC.

• Item Type: Journal article
• Faculties: Chemistry and Pharmacy > Department of Biochemistry
• Subjects: 500 Science > 540 Chemistry
• ISSN: 0305-1048
• Language: English