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. 2009 Mar 26;10:26. doi: 10.1186/1471-2199-10-26

Figure 5.

Figure 5

Schematic representation of a putative tick RNAi pathway. Cattle tick homologues are indicated using a 'Cat' prefix for proteins where Rhicipephalus (Boophilus) microplus homologues are identified in this study (GenBank Accessions are listed in Additional File 6). The proposed activity of the Cat-RdRP (RNA dependent RNA polymerase, EGO1-like) is indicated as amplifying trigger dsRNA or cleaved siRNAs. Long dsRNAs are recruited to Dicer (putative tick Dicer identified in I. scapularis genome reads) via a yet to be identified dsRNA Binding Protein. The RNA-Induced-Silencing Complex (RISC) includes a Cat-Ago-2 (Argonaute-2 homologue), tick TudorSN (I. scapularis tudor-staphylococcal nuclease – GenBank EEC18716.1) and a Cat-FmRp (representing the D. melanogaster orthologue of the fragile-X mental-retardation protein essential to RISC). Homologues for a tick RNA unwinding protein and a vasa intronic gene (associated with RISC) were not identified. The schematic diagram was partly adapted from Sontheimer 2005 [44] and was drawn using Solid Edge Version 20 (Siemens PLM Software, TX, USA).