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. 2019 Mar 27;47(9):4707–4720. doi: 10.1093/nar/gkz208

Figure 1.

Figure 1.

Mechanisms of long dsRNA digestion by RNase III enzymes. (A) A bacterial RNase III dimer recognizes the dsRNA termini, especially those featuring a 2-nt 3′ overhang, cleaves both strands and produces a short RNA duplex of 11 nt in each strand. Under special conditions, two RNase III dimers bind to and cleave dsRNA in a cooperative manner, which produces an RNA duplex of 22 nt in each strand. (B) Human Dicer recognizes the dsRNA termini with a 2-nt 3′ overhang, cleaves both strands and produces an RNA duplex of 22 nt in each strand. (C) Two dimers of yeast Dcr1 cooperatively bind to and cleave a long dsRNA, producing RNA duplexes containing ∼22 nt in each strand.