Small RNA profiling of Dengue virus-mosquito interactions implicates the XXXX RNA pathway in anti-viral defense.

@entity778 @entity15661 @entity2037 @entity281 @entity15660 @entity779
BACKGROUND: Small RNA (sRNA) regulatory pathways (SRRPs) are important to anti-viral defence in mosquitoes. To identify critical features of the @entity778 process in @entity779 (DENV2)-infected Ae. aegypti, we deep-sequenced small non-coding RNAs. Triplicate biological replicates were used so that rigorous statistical metrics could be applied. RESULTS: In addition to virus-derived siRNAs (20-23 nts) previously reported for other arbovirus-infected mosquitoes, we show that @entity15660 pathway sRNAs (piRNAs) (24-30 nts) and unusually small RNAs (usRNAs) (13-19 nts) are produced in DENV-infected mosquitoes. We demonstrate that a major catalytic enzyme of the siRNA pathway, @entity2037 ( @entity2037 ), co-migrates with a ~1 megadalton complex in adults prior to bloodfeeding. sRNAs were cloned and sequenced from @entity2037 immunoprecipitations. Viral sRNA patterns change over the course of @entity281 . Host sRNAs were mapped to the published aedine transcriptome and subjected to analysis using edgeR (Bioconductor). We found that sRNA profiles are altered early in DENV2 @entity281 , and mRNA targets from mitochondrial, transcription/translation, and transport functional categories are affected. Moreover, small non-coding RNAs (ncRNAs), such as tRNAs, spliceosomal U RNAs, and snoRNAs are highly enriched in DENV-infected samples at 2 and 4 dpi. CONCLUSIONS: These data implicate the @entity15660 pathway in anti-viral defense. Changes to host sRNA profiles indicate that specific cellular processes are affected during DENV @entity281 , such as mitochondrial function and @entity15661 levels. Together, these data provide important progress in understanding the DENV2 @entity281 process in Ae. aegypti.
