meg-3 meg-4 upregulate endogenous sRNAs targeting RNAi genes and downregulate their mRNAs

sRNAseq was conducted on four independently generated meg-3 meg-4 lines, and upregulation of sRNAs targeting several RNAi genes was found. mRNAseq found that the transcript levels for several of these genes was also down. meg-3 meg-4 mutants also showed a similar pattern of sRNA misregulation as the rde-11 mutant. Mixed-staged populations of independently generated meg-3 meg-4 lines (meg-3 meg-4 #1, #2, #3, #4) and N2 worms (grown on NA22) were collected and subject to sRNAseq. mRNAseq was additionally conducted on young mother-staged populations of meg-3 meg-4 #1 and N2 grown on HT115 with the L4440 plasmid. sRNAseq was also conducted on young mother-staged N2 and rde-11 mutants.