RNA binding by ADARs prevents RNA interference from attacking self-produced dsRNA.

In Caenorhabditis elegans, ADAR mutant animals show significantly increased siRNAs targeting edited genes, indicating ADARs normally suppress RNAi against self-produced edited dsRNA.

• Why it matters: Distinguishing self from foreign dsRNA is essential to trigger immunity when needed without autoimmunity, but how RNA editing and RNAi pathways coordinate is unclear.
• What they did: The study compared ADAR mutant and wild-type animals, measuring siRNA levels from edited transcripts and testing how ADARs affect exogenous RNAi in vivo, including a role for ADR-2 dsRNA binding.
• The result: ADARs antagonize the first step of RNAi processing, interfere with exogenous RNAi efficacy likely by limiting trans-silencing, and require ADR-2 binding to dsRNA to suppress RNAi.

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