rde-1 encodes a member of the Argonaute (SGO) and PIWI family of proteins; rde-1 activity is required for RNA-mediated interference (RNAi); specifically, in RNAi induced by exogenous dsRNA, RDE-1 acts as the siRNA acceptor for siRNAs produced by DCR-1-mediated cleavage; subsequently, RDE-1 directs a multi-protein complex to homologous mRNA targets to trigger their destabilization and degradation; RDE-1 physically interacts with the dsRNA binding protein RDE-4 in vivo and RDE-1 activity is also required for accumulation of dsRNA bound to RDE-4.
Enables DEAD/H-box RNA helicase binding activity; RNA endonuclease activity, producing 5'-phosphomonoesters; and siRNA binding activity. Involved in obsolete conversion of ds siRNA to ss siRNA involved in RNA interference; regulatory ncRNA-mediated heterochromatin formation; and regulatory ncRNA-mediated post-transcriptional gene silencing. Part of RISC complex. Expressed in male.
Map position created from combination of previous interpolated map position (based on known location of sequence) and allele information. Therefore this is not a genetic map position based on recombination frequencies or genetic experiments. This was done on advice of the CGC.