Primer pairs used for amplification of factors of the core machinery of small RNA pathways.

All primers amplified specific PCR products (Figure 1; sequences shown in Text S1) with exception of some BmR2D2 primer pairs as discussed in the text. BmR2D2 primer pair 1 amplified the cDNA fragments that are shown in Figure 1 and Figure S1A. BmR2D2 primer pair 5 amplified a 196 bp fragment from genomic DNA (Figure S1C and Text S1) but not from any cDNA. The use of BmR2D2 primer pairs 2, 3 and 4 did not result in any specific amplification products either from cDNA or from genomic DNA. BmTranslin primer pair 1 detects specifically the BmTranslin2 isoform but not the BmTranslin1 isoform (amplified product shown in Figure 1; sequence shown in Text S1). BmTranslin primer pairs 2 and 3 were used to amplify the complete ORF of the BmTranslin1 and BmTranslin2 isoforms, respectively.