Dissecting protein domain variability in the core RNA interference machinery of five insect orders
Fabrício Barbosa Monteiro Arraes, Diogo Martins-de-Sa, Daniel D. Noriega Vasquez, Bruno Paes de Melo, Muhammad Faheem, Leonardo Lima Pepino Macedo, Carolina Vianna Morgante, J.A.R.G. Barbosa, Roberto Coiti Togawa, Valdeir Junio Vaz Moreira, Étienne Danchin, Maria Fátima Grossi‐de‐Sá
Abstract
) to outline the variability across domain regions and surfaces. Our results show that four domains, namely dsrm, Helicase, PAZ and Ribonuclease III, are the main contributors of protein variability in the RNAi machinery across different insect orders. We discuss the potential roles of these domains in regulating RNAi-mediated gene silencing and the role of loop regions in fine-tuning RNAi efficiency. Additionally, we identified several order-specific singularities which indicate that lepidopterans have evolved differently from other insect orders, possibly due to constant coevolution with plants and viruses. In conclusion, our results highlight several variability hotspots that deserve further investigation in order to improve the application of RNAi technology in the control of insect pests.