Description
We report the cloning and sequencing of both endogenous small RNAs and virus-derived siRNAs produced by the antiviral RNAi pathway in Drosophila. We find that a diverse panel of viruses are targeted by the RNAi pathway in Drosophila to produce abundant virus-derived siRNAs, and these siRNAs map to various locations within the viral genomes. Knockdown of various RNAi and miRNA pathway components alters the levels of these viral small RNAs. Overall design: Drosophila DL1 cells were treated with dsRNA for 3 days to deplete factors involved in the antiviral RNAi pathway and miRNA pathway, then were challenged with one of four viruses for 4 days. Total RNA was collected, and the small RNA populations from 15-29 nt were cloned and sequenced.