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RNA activation in mosquito cells and its suppression by the dengue virus NS5 protein (#105)

Sultan Asad ¹ , Mazhar Hussain ¹ , Sassan Asgari

Australian Infectious Disease Research Centre, School of Biological Sciences , The University of Queensland, Brisbane, QLD, Australia

RNA activation (RNAa) is one of the nascent research areas in molecular biology, which involves small RNAs inducing gene expression by targeting gene promoters. So far, RNAa has only been found in humans and other mammals, and it is unclear whether this phenomenon is present in insects. Furthermore, there is no report about the effect of pathogen infection on RNAa. In this study, we employed dsRNA and short interfering RNAs (siRNAs) directed against the OplE2 promoter of the GFP reporter system, and examined their effect on GFP expression. In addition to that, the effect of dsRNA to the promoter on GFP expression was evaluated in the presence of dengue virus genes. Our results clearly showed that siRNAs targeting the TATA box of the promoter could induce GFP expression in mosquito cells. In addition, dengue virus non-structural protein 5 (NS5), in particular the methyltransferase domain of the protein, could successfully inhibit RNAa. The outcome of this research opens new avenues for RNAa-related research into insect biology and its potential role in host-pathogen interactions.