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Updated: May 8, 2026

Double-stranded RNA Oral Delivery Methods to Induce RNA Interference in Phloem and Plant-sap-feeding Hemipteran Insects
Published on: May 4, 2018
Small RNAs tackle large viruses: RNA interference-based antiviral defense against DNA viruses in insects
Alfred W Bronkhorst1, Pascal Miesen1, Ronald P van Rij1
1Department of Medical Microbiology; Radboud University Nijmegen Medical Centre; Nijmegen Centre for Molecular Life Sciences; Nijmegen Institute for Infection, Inflammation and Immunity; Nijmegen, The Netherlands.
Abstract:
The antiviral RNA interference (RNAi) pathway processes viral double-stranded RNA (dsRNA) into viral small interfering RNAs (vsiRNA) that guide the recognition and cleavage of complementary viral target RNAs. In RNA virus infections, viral replication intermediates, dsRNA genomes or viral structured RNAs have been implicated as Dicer-2 substrates. In a recent publication, we demonstrated that a double-stranded DNA virus, Invertebrate iridescent virus 6, is a target of the Drosophila RNAi machinery, and we proposed that overlapping converging transcripts base pair to form the dsRNA substrates for vsiRNA biogenesis. Here, we discuss the role of RNAi in antiviral defense to DNA viruses in Drosophila and other invertebrate model systems.
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