Transgenic inhibitors of RNA interference in Drosophila

RNA silencing functions as an adaptive antiviral defense in both plants and animals. In turn, viruses commonly encode suppressors of RNA silencing, which enable them to mount productive infection. These inhibitor proteins may be exploited as reagents with which to probe mechanisms and functions of RNA silencing pathways. In this report, we describe transgenic Drosophila strains that allow inducible expression of the viral RNA silencing inhibitors Flock House virus-B2, Nodamura virus-B2, vaccinia virus-E3L, influenza A virus-NS1 and tombusvirus P19. Some of these, especially the B2 proteins, are effective transgenic inhibitors of double strand RNA-induced gene silencing in flies. On the other hand, none of them is effective against the Drosophila microRNA pathway. Their functional selectivity makes these viral silencing proteins useful reagents with which to study biological functions of the Drosophila RNA interference pathway.