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E. coli OxyS non-coding RNA does not trigger RNAi in C. elegans.


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Authors

Sarkies, Peter 
Miska, Eric A 

Abstract

The discovery of RNA interference (RNAi) in C. elegans has had a major impact on scientific research, led to the rapid development of RNAi tools and has inspired RNA-based therapeutics. Astonishingly, nematodes, planaria and many insects take up double-stranded RNA (dsRNA) from their environment to elicit RNAi; the biological function of this mechanism is unclear. Recently, the E. coli OxyS non-coding RNA was shown to regulate gene expression in C. elegans when E. coli is offered as food. This was surprising given that C. elegans is unlikely to encounter E. coli in nature. To directly test the hypothesis that the E. coli OxyS non-coding RNA triggers the C. elegans RNAi pathway, we sequenced small RNAs from C. elegans after feeding with bacteria. We clearly demonstrate that the OxyS non-coding RNA does not trigger an RNAi response in C. elegans. We conclude that the biology of environmental RNAi remains to be discovered.

Description

Keywords

Animals, Base Sequence, Caenorhabditis elegans, Escherichia coli Proteins, Gene Expression, Genome, Bacterial, Helminth Proteins, Nucleic Acid Conformation, RNA Interference, RNA, Untranslated, Repressor Proteins

Journal Title

Sci Rep

Conference Name

Journal ISSN

2045-2322
2045-2322

Volume Title

5

Publisher

Springer Science and Business Media LLC
Sponsorship
Wellcome Trust (104640/Z/14/Z)
PS is funded by a research fellowship from the Gonville and Caius College, University of Cambridge. AA and EAM are supported by a Cancer Research UK programme grant to EAM.