Gene silencing in Neurospora crassa requires a protein homologous to RNA-dependent RNA polymerase

In plants and fungi, the introduction of transgenes can lead to post-transcriptional gene silencing(1,2). This phenomenon, in which expression of the transgene and of endogenous genes containing sequences homologous to the transgene can be blocked, is involved in virus resistance(3-5) and genome maintenance(6,7). Transgene-induced gene silencing has been termed quelling in Neurospora crassa and co-suppression in plants. Quelling-defective (qde) mutants of N. crassa, in which transgene-induced gene silencing is impaired, have been isolated(8). Here we report the cloning of qde-1, the first cellular component of the gene-silencing mechanism to be isolated, which defines a new gene family conserved among different species including plants, animals and fungi. The qde-1 gene product is similar to an RNA-dependent RNA polymerase found in the tomato(9). The identification of qde-1 strongly supports models that implicate an RNA-dependent RNA polymerase in the post-transcriptional gene-silencing mechanism. The presence of qde-1 homologues in a variety of species of plants and fungi indicates that a conserved gene-silencing mechanism may exist, which could have evolved to preserve genome integrity and to protect the genome against naturally occurring transposons and viruses.