Nematodes Go Viral

Robin Meadows

doi:10.1371/journal.pbio.1001011

Abstract

Nematodes Go Viral

Highlights

Tiny worms with simple genetics, nematodes have almost everything it takes to be a favored model system to study viral infections
Previous studies of nematode immunity to artificially introduced viral RNA had shown that nematodes counter infection via the RNA interference (RNAi) pathway, which suppresses replication of viral genomes by destroying RNA sequences. This is a key defense mechanism against RNA viruses common to plants and animals. To see if this holds for natural viral infections, the researchers determined whether Orsay virus–infected C. elegans produced the small RNAs—the short noncoding sequences that mediate and are products of the RNAi pathway
Of the nearly 1.5 million unique small RNAs identified in the infected C. elegans strain, about 21,000, or nearly 2%, mapped to the Orsay virus RNA

Summary

Introduction

Tiny worms with simple genetics, nematodes have almost everything it takes to be a favored model system to study viral infections. Recent work has shown that the nematode Caenorhabditis elegans, long known to enlist innate immune pathways against bacteria, can muster such resistance to viruses. Because no viruses were known to infect nematodes naturally, biologists had to rely on artificial means of introducing viruses or viral RNA.

Results

Conclusion