Small interfering RNA-mediated silencing induces target-dependent assembly of GW/P bodies

Gene silencing using small interfering RNA (siRNA) is a valuable laboratory tool and a promising approach to therapeutics for a variety of human diseases. Recently, RNA interference (RNAi) has been linked to cytoplasmic GW bodies (GWB). However, the correlation between RNAi and the formation of GWB, also known as mammalian processing bodies, remains unclear. In this report, we show that transfection of functional siRNA induced larger and greater numbers of GWB. This siRNA-induced increase of GWB depended on the endogenous expression of the target mRNA. Knockdown of GW182 or Ago2 demonstrated that the siRNA-induced increase of GWB required these two proteins and correlated with RNAi. Furthermore, knockdown of rck/p54 or LSm1 did not prevent the reassembly of GWB that were induced by and correlated with siRNA-mediated RNA silencing. We propose that RNAi is a key regulatory mechanism for the assembly of GWB, and in some cases, GWB may serve as markers for RNAi in mammalian cells.