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Identification of Viral Suppressors of RNAi by a Reporter Assay in Drosophila S2 Cell Culture

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Antiviral RNAi

Part of the book series: Methods in Molecular Biology ((MIMB,volume 721))

Abstract

The RNA interference (RNAi) pathway plays an important role in antiviral immunity in insects. To ­counteract the RNAi-mediated immune response of their hosts, several insect viruses, such as Flock house virus, Drosophila C virus, and Cricket paralysis virus, encode potent viral suppressors of RNAi (VSRs). Because of the importance of RNAi in antiviral defense in insects, other insect viruses are likely to encode VSRs as well. In this chapter, we describe a detailed protocol for an RNAi reporter assay in Drosophila S2 cells for the identification of VSR activity.

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Acknowledgments

The authors would like to thank Walter Bronkhorst for helpful discussions. This work was supported by a fellowship from the Nijmegen Centre for Molecular Life Sciences, by a VIDI fellowship from the Netherlands Organization for Scientific Research (project number 864.08.003), and by Horizon Breakthrough fellowships from the Netherlands Genomics Initiative (project numbers 93519018 and 93518020).

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Correspondence to Ronald P. van Rij .

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© 2011 Humana Press

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van Cleef, K.W.R., van Mierlo, J.T., van den Beek, M., van Rij, R.P. (2011). Identification of Viral Suppressors of RNAi by a Reporter Assay in Drosophila S2 Cell Culture. In: van Rij, R. (eds) Antiviral RNAi. Methods in Molecular Biology, vol 721. Humana Press. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-61779-037-9_12

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-61779-037-9_12

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  • Publisher Name: Humana Press

  • Print ISBN: 978-1-61779-036-2

  • Online ISBN: 978-1-61779-037-9

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