{"doi":"10.1038/nature07007","title":"An endogenous small interfering RNA pathway in Drosophila","abstract":"Drosophila endogenous small RNAs are categorized according to their mechanisms of biogenesis and the Argonaute protein to which they bind. MicroRNAs are a class of ubiquitously expressed RNAs of approximately 22 nucleotides in length, which arise from structured precursors through the action of Drosha-Pasha and Dicer-1-Loquacious complexes. These join Argonaute-1 to regulate gene expression. A second endogenous small RNA class, the Piwi-interacting RNAs, bind Piwi proteins and suppress transposons. Piwi-interacting RNAs are restricted to the gonad, and at least a subset of these arises by Piwi-catalysed cleavage of single-stranded RNAs. Here we show that Drosophila generates a third small RNA class, endogenous small interfering RNAs, in both gonadal and somatic tissues. Production of these RNAs requires Dicer-2, but a subset depends preferentially on Loquacious rather than the canonical Dicer-2 partner, R2D2 (ref. 14). Endogenous small interfering RNAs arise both from convergent transcription units and from structured genomic loci in a tissue-specific fashion. They predominantly join Argonaute-2 and have the capacity, as a class, to target both protein-coding genes and mobile elements. These observations expand the repertoire of small RNAs in Drosophila, adding a class that blurs distinctions based on known biogenesis mechanisms and functional roles.","journal":"Nature","year":2008,"id":1112,"datarank":0.9845783289798192,"base_score":6.5638555265321274,"endowment":6.5638555265321274,"self_citation_contribution":0.9845783289798192,"citation_network_contribution":0.0,"self_endowment_contribution":0.9845783289798192,"citer_contribution":0.0,"corpus_percentile":null,"corpus_rank":null,"citation_count":708,"citer_count":0,"citers_with_citation_signal":0,"citers_with_endowment":0,"datacite_reuse_total":0,"is_dataset":false,"is_dataset_confidence":0.0574,"is_oa":true,"file_count":0,"downloads":0,"has_version_chain":false,"published_date":"2008-05-07","fair_score":null,"fair_percentile":null,"algorithm_id":"datarank_citation_only_1hop_v6","ranking_scope":"data_only","authors":[{"id":14952,"name":"Colin D. Malone","orcid":null,"position":1,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":14953,"name":"Rui Zhou","orcid":"0000-0002-1818-7710","position":2,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":14954,"name":"Alexander Stark","orcid":"0000-0003-2611-0841","position":3,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":14955,"name":"Catherine Schlingeheyde","orcid":null,"position":4,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":14956,"name":"Monica Dus","orcid":"0000-0003-1465-9028","position":5,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":14957,"name":"Norbert Perrimon","orcid":"0000-0001-7542-472X","position":6,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":14693,"name":"Sharon L. R. Kardia","orcid":"0000-0002-9853-3379","position":7,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":14958,"name":"James A. Wohlschlegel","orcid":"0000-0003-3399-901X","position":8,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":14959,"name":"Ravi Sachidanandam","orcid":"0000-0001-9844-4459","position":9,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":11809,"name":"Gregory J. Hannon","orcid":"0000-0003-4021-3898","position":10,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":14960,"name":"Julius Brennecke","orcid":"0000-0002-5141-0814","position":11,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":14961,"name":"B. Czech","orcid":null,"position":12,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":14951,"name":"Benjamin Czech","orcid":null,"position":0,"is_corresponding":true}],"reference_count":32,"raw_metadata":{"citation_network_status":"fetched"},"created_at":"2026-03-01T18:20:47.508186Z","pmid":null,"pmcid":null,"fwci":null,"citation_percentile":null,"influential_citations":0,"oa_status":null,"license":null,"views":0,"total_file_size_bytes":0,"version_count":0,"fair_f":null,"fair_a":null,"fair_i":null,"fair_r":null,"fair_zscore":null,"fair_rationale":null,"fair_model":null,"fair_agent_version":null,"fair_fulltext_source":null,"fair_has_llm":null,"fair_computed_at":null,"clinical_trials":[],"software_tools":[],"db_accessions":[],"linked_datasets":[],"topics":[]}