ARGONAUTE PIWI domain and microRNA duplex structure regulate small RNA sorting in Arabidopsis

Xiaoming Zhang, DongDong Niu, Alberto Carbonell, Airong Wang, Angel Lee, Vinnary Tun, Zonghua Wang, James C. Carrington, Chia-en A. Chang and Hailing Jin ()
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Xiaoming Zhang: Center for Plant Cell Biology and Institute for Integrative Genome Biology, University of California
DongDong Niu: Center for Plant Cell Biology and Institute for Integrative Genome Biology, University of California
Alberto Carbonell: Donald Danforth Plant Science Center
Airong Wang: Center for Plant Cell Biology and Institute for Integrative Genome Biology, University of California
Angel Lee: Center for Plant Cell Biology and Institute for Integrative Genome Biology, University of California
Vinnary Tun: Center for Plant Cell Biology and Institute for Integrative Genome Biology, University of California
Zonghua Wang: Key Laboratory of Bio-pesticide and Chemistry Biology, Ministry of Education, Fujian Agricultural and Forestry University
James C. Carrington: Donald Danforth Plant Science Center
Chia-en A. Chang: University of California Riverside
Hailing Jin: Center for Plant Cell Biology and Institute for Integrative Genome Biology, University of California

Nature Communications, 2014, vol. 5, issue 1, 1-11

Abstract: Abstract Small RNAs (sRNAs) are loaded into ARGONAUTE (AGO) proteins to induce gene silencing. In plants, the 5′-terminal nucleotide is important for sRNA sorting into different AGOs. Here we show that microRNA (miRNA) duplex structure also contributes to miRNA sorting. Base pairing at the 15th nucleotide of a miRNA duplex is important for miRNA sorting in both Arabidopsis AGO1 and AGO2. AGO2 favours miRNA duplexes with no middle mismatches, whereas AGO1 tolerates, or prefers, duplexes with central mismatches. AGO structure modelling and mutational analyses reveal that the QF-V motif within the conserved PIWI domain contributes to recognition of base pairing at the 15th nucleotide of a duplex, while the DDDE catalytic core of AtAGO2 is important for recognition of the central nucleotides. Finally, we rescued the adaxialized phenotype of ago1-12, which is largely due to miR165 loss-of-function, by changing miR165 duplex structure which we predict redirects it to AGO2.

Date: 2014
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DOI: 10.1038/ncomms6468

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