a, Effect of suppressing Dicer on RMRP-derived small RNAs. Northern blotting was performed to detect [1] small RNAs using the antisense strand of RMRP as a probe in the indicated cells expressing control shRNA (sh-GFP) or Dicer-specific shRNAs (sh-Dicer #1 and sh-Dicer #2), [2] pre-miR-16 and mature miR-16 using a miR-16 specific probe, and [3] U6 RNA. See Supplementary Fig. 16. b, RT-PCR for total RMRP from cell lines expressing control shRNA or Dicer-specific shRNAs. The relative intensity of RMRP is noted at the bottom of the panel. c, RMRP-derived small RNAs are associated with Ago2. Human Ago2 immune complexes were isolated using anti-hAgo2-specific antisera or pre-immune sera, and small RNAs were detected by Northern blotting. Blotting of oligonucleotides (RMRP 20–41 and RMRP AS 41-20) is also shown.