MB&B Seminar: Brenda Bass - The Joseph Coleman Memorial Lecture “Divergent Roles of Dicer’s Helicase Domain in Antiviral Defense”

Viruses were once thought to be the sole source of long double-stranded RNA (dsRNA) in animal cells, but the Bass laboratory identified numerous long dsRNAs that are genomically encoded and expressed in animals, including humans. dsRNA-binding proteins enable cells to distinguish the “good” cellular dsRNA from the “bad” viral dsRNA, but how they do this is not completely understood. Our current studies are focused on how a conserved helicase domain distinguishes “self” versus “non-self” dsRNA, and how this function has diverged in vertebrates and invertebrates.