Culex Y virus supresses dsRNA- and siRNA-induced RNAi. Culex Y virus

RNA interference (RNAi) is a crucial antiviral defense mechanism in insects, including the major mosquito species that transmit important human viruses. However, whether mosquito-specific viruses suppress RNAi remains unclear. We therefore set out to study RNAi suppression by Culex Y virus (CYV), a mosquito-specific virus of the Birnaviridae family that was recently isolated from Culex pipiens mosquitoes. To demonstrate that CYV induces RNAi small RNAs from infected Culex tarsalis (CT) cells were isolated and analyzed by deep sequencing.