Erroneous ribosomal RNAs promote the generation of antisense ribosomal siRNA. Erroneous ribosomal RNAs promote the generation of antisense ribosomal siRNA

Ribosome biogenesis is a multi-step process, during which mistakes could take place at any step of pre-rRNA processing, modification, and assembly of ribosomes. Misprocessed rRNAs are usually detected and degraded by surveillance machineries. Recently, we identified a class of antisense ribosomal siRNAs (risiRNAs) that downregulate pre-rRNAs through the nuclear RNAi pathway. To further understand the biological roles of risiRNA, we conducted both forward and reverse genetic screenings to search for more susi mutants. We isolated a number of genes that are broadly conserved from yeast to humans and are involved in pre-rRNA modification and processing. Among them, SUSI-2(ceRRP8) is homologous to human RRP8 and engages in m1A methylation of 26S rRNA. C27F2.4(ceBUD23) is a m7G methyltransferase of 18S rRNA. E02H1.1(ceDIMT1L) is a predicted m6(2)Am6(2)A methyltransferase of 18S rRNA . Mutation of these genes led to modification deficiency of rRNAs and elicited accumulation of risiRNAs, which further triggered the cytoplasm to nuclear and nucleolar translocation of an Argonaute protein NRDE-3. The processing deficiency of rRNAs resulted in the accumulation of risiRNAs as well. We isolated SUSI-3(RIOK-1) which is similar to human RIOK1 that cleaves 20S to 18S rRNA. We further utilized RNAi and CRISPR/Cas9 technologies to perform candidate-based reverse genetic screening and identified additional pre-rRNA processing factors that suppressed risiRNA production. Therefore, we concluded that erroneous rRNAs can trigger risiRNA generation and subsequently turn on the nuclear RNAi-mediated gene silencing pathway to inhibit pre-rRNA expression, which may provide a quality control mechanism to maintain the homeostasis of rRNAs. Overall design: In this study, we compared total small RNAs from (1) control animals; (2) susi-2(ust49) mutant; (3) susi-3(ust51) mutant. And we also compared the NRDE-3 associated small RNAs in (4) control animals; (5) susi-2(ust49) mutant; and (6) susi-3(ust51) mutant.