Functional analysis of Arabidopsis ARGONAUTE1 using a slicer-defective mutant: Small RNA immunoprecipitation

The Arabidopsis ARGONAUTE (AGO) protein AGO1 associates with microRNA (miRNA) and specific classes of short-interfering RNA (siRNA). AGO1-small RNA complexes recognize target RNA transcripts through base-pairing interactions and inhibit translation of target RNAs through endonucleolytic cleavage (slicing) or non-degradative mechanisms. The PIWI domain of AGO1 contains a metal-coordinating triad [Asp-Asp-His] (DDH) that is required for slicer activity. Here, we compared the activities of wild type (DDH) and slicer active-site defective (DAH) forms of AGO1 by sequencing small RNA and target transcript RNAs that co-immunoprecipitated with hemagglutinin (HA)-tagged AGO1 proteins. We found that the population of miRNA that associated with both AGO1-DDH and AGO1-DAH proteins largely overlapped, suggesting that cleavage activity does not affect miRNA maturation. In contrast, slicer-defective AGO1-miRNA complexes associated with target RNA more effectively than did wild type AGO1-miRNA. These data indicate that slicer-defective AGO proteins can be used as an approach to capture AGO-small RNA-target RNA ternary complexes more efficiently for genome-wide analyses. AGO1-DDH (wild type) AGO1-DAH (slicer mutant) proteins were immunoprecipitated (N-terminal 3xHA) from Arabidopsis (Columbia) flower (stages 1-12) lysate. Immunoprecipitations were also done from control plants transformed with vector only. Small RNA from immunoprecipitate fractions of vector, AGO1-DDH and AGO1-DAH were sequenced.