#18 Nucleic acid activated viral defence pathways Flashcards
why are RNAs complex?
- they have a lot of self complementarity
- can form mismatched pairs
- they can form complex structures that are dynamic
what two forms of information does RNA have
structure and sequence
non-coding regions of RNA code for this
what do virus sequence components of RNA contain?
- contain information to counteract the immune system, immune regulation, to control viral replication and host defences
what type of result does PRRs give
a non-specific response and produce generic antiviral mediators
what RNA in plants is used in specific nucleic acid antiviral activity? ‘the genetic immune system’
- small non-coding RNAs are used as effectors
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explain the genetic immunity process in ringspot infection of plants
- virus produced dsRNA
- the DICER enzyme that is a RNAse will cleave the RNA into short fragments called siRNAs
- the siRNA will load onto RISC enzyme
- The RISC/siRNA will bind to the complementary ss strand of the RNA virus
- RISC will cleave the RNA strand / it can cleave multiple strands
what invertebrate was genetic immunity shown in?
c.elegans
they were fed bacteria with GFP
the GFP was switched off
how is mRNA silencing mediated by invertebrates and plants?
- they all use viral dsRNA as a PAMP
- they will generate siRNAs with the RNA and will target and silence that viral mRNA
what is the bacterial genetic defence system?
crRNAs
what are the properties of siRNA generated by invertebrates and plants
- short perfectly duplexed 19 base pair double helix of RNA with 2-nucleotide 3’ single stranded tails
- both plants and invertebrates produce this
- perfectly duplexed siRNAs will cause CLEAVAGE of the target RNA
what are the two argonaut proteins in the RISC complex and what do they do?
Argo1: RNA endonuclease (slicer protein)
Argo2: RNA transcription inhibitor (silencer protein)
explain how siRNA is made in plants and invertebrates?
- long dsRNA is processed by dicer to make siRNA
- there is sequence and structure selection where the strand with the less tightly base paired 5’ end is incorporated into RISC and becomes the guide strand
- the guide strand determines the target for viral mRNA
what is the outcome for viral RNA when targeted by siRNA?
- the mRNA will be cleaved from siRNA targeting
- uses Argo1
what is the outcome for viral RNA when targeted by miRNA or shRNA (hairpin rna)?
- the mRNA being targeted will not be cleaved, it will be silenced !
how do you distinguish siRNA from miRNA?
siRNA is perfectly duplexed
miRNA has mismatches