PT  - JOURNAL ARTICLE
AU  - Hiro-oki Iwakawa
AU  - Andy Y.W. Lam
AU  - Akira Mine
AU  - Tomoya Fujita
AU  - Kaori Kiyokawa
AU  - Manabu Yoshikawa
AU  - Atsushi Takeda
AU  - Shintaro Iwasaki
AU  - Yukihide Tomari
TI  - Ribosome stalling caused by the Argonaute-microRNA-SGS3 complex regulates the production of secondary siRNAs in plants
AID  - 10.1101/2020.09.10.288902
DP  - 2021 Jan 01
TA  - bioRxiv
PG  - 2020.09.10.288902
4099  - http://biorxiv.org/content/early/2021/05/05/2020.09.10.288902.short
4100  - http://biorxiv.org/content/early/2021/05/05/2020.09.10.288902.full
AB  - The path of ribosomes on mRNAs can be impeded by various obstacles. One such example is halting of ribosome movement by microRNAs, though the exact mechanism and physiological role remain unclear. Here, we find that ribosome stalling caused by the Argonaute-microRNA-SGS3 complex regulates the production of secondary small interfering RNAs (siRNAs) in plants. We show that the double-stranded RNA-binding protein SGS3 directly interacts with the 3′ end of the microRNA in an Argonaute protein, resulting in ribosome stalling. Importantly, microRNA-mediated ribosome stalling positively correlates with efficient production of secondary siRNAs from target mRNAs. Our results illustrate a role for paused ribosomes in regulation of small RNA function that may have broad biological implications across the plant kingdom.Competing Interest StatementThe authors have declared no competing interest.