Identification of a peach latent mosaic viroid hairpin able to act as a Dicer-like substrate

The ability of several viroids to induce posttranscriptional gene silencing has been demonstrated; however, the structure recognized by the Dicer enzyme(s) responsible for the initiation of this mechanism remains a mystery. Here, we show that the hairpin known to be implicated in the replication of peach latent mosaic viroid has the ability to trigger the Dicer enzyme(s). This domain, which is composed of a succession of several small stems separated by symmetrical bulges, is reminiscent of the precursor micro-RNAs.