RNA-Interference Components Are Dispensable for Transcriptional Silencing of the Drosophila Bithorax- Complex
13-Jun-2013
PLoS ONE, 2013, doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0065740, 8(6): e65740. published on 13.06.2013
PLoS ONE, online article
PLoS ONE, online article
Beyond their role in post-transcriptional gene silencing, Dicer and Argonaute, two components of the RNA interference (RNAi) machinery, were shown to be involved in epigenetic regulation of centromeric heterochromatin and transcriptional gene silencing. In particular, RNAi mechanisms appear to play a role in repeat induced silencing and some aspects of Polycomb-mediated gene silencing. However, the functional interplay of RNAi mechanisms and Polycomb group (PcG) pathways at endogenous loci remains to be elucidated.