Drosophila endogenous small RNAs bind to Argonaute2 in somatic cells. Drosophila melanogaster

RNA silencing is a conserved mechanism in which small RNAs trigger various forms of sequence specific gene silencing by guiding Argonaute complexes to target RNAs via base-pairing. RNA silencing is thought to have evolved as a form of nucleic-acid-based immunity to inactivate viruses and transposable elements (TEs). Although the activity of TEs in animals has been thought to be largely restricted to the germline, recent studies have shown that they may also actively transpose in somatic cells, creating somatic mosaicism in animals3. In the Drosophila germline, piRNAs arise from repetitive intergenic elements including retrotransposons by a Dicer-independent pathway and function through the PIWI subfamily of Argonautes to ensure silencing of retrotransposons. Here we show that in Drosophila cultured S2 cells, Argonaute2 (AGO2), an AGO subfamily member of Argonautes, associates with endogenous small RNAs of 20-22 nucleotides in length, which we have collectively named esiRNAs (endogenous siRNAs). esiRNAs can be divided into two groups: one that mainly corresponds to a subset of retrotransposons, and the other that arises from stem-loop structures. esiRNAs are produced in a Dicer-2-dependent manner from distinctive genomic loci, are modified at their 3’ ends and can direct AGO2 to cleave target RNAs. Depletion of Dicer2 or AGO2 in S2 cells coincided with higher levels of retrotransposon transcripts. Together, our findings indicate that in Drosophila, different types of small RNAs and Argonautes are utilized to repress retrotransposons in germline and somatic cells. Keywords: AGO2, small RNA 454 sequencing - high throughput Overall design: Cloning of small RNAs associated with AGO2 in S2 cells and deep sequence analysis. Presented here is a list of non-redundant AGO2-associated small RNAs.