Figure 6.

Loading of each strand of siRNA variants into Ago2 is not dependent on mRNA target presence. Co-transfections of the indicated psiCHECK strand sensor (scaling up from the amount used in Figure 2) and 10 nM of the indicated H5 (a) or H6 (b) siRNA variant were transfected into HEK293FLAGHA_Ago2 cells. Small RNA immunoprecipitation assay followed by Northern blotting was conducted as in Figure 5. Cells treated with siGFP served as negative controls. Additional size markers (lanes 1–4) are included to indicate the size of the probed small RNA species.