Supporting Information Duan et al. Table of contents: 1. Supplementary Figures Legends S1-13 2. Supplementary Methods S1-3 3. Supplementary Tables S1-4 4. Supplementary References 1. Supplementary Figure Legends S1. Diagram of detection of the 1° and 2° siRNAs with the probes designed based on the pebble (1) gene sequence using Northern hybridization and for the RNAse Protection Assay. The red fragment represents the sequence targeted by hair-pin RNA; the blue fragment represents the sequence upstream of the targeted sequence. Probe 1 and 2 as indicated were for Northern blotting and Hybridization, while probe 3 and 4 were for RNAse protection assay. Probe 1 and 4 were for 1° siRNAs detection; probe 2 and 3 were for 2° siRNAs detection. S2. pebble gene cDNA sequence. The sequence targeted by the dsRNA hairpin pblRNAi.4B is shown in red (2) S3. Detection of 1° and 2° siRNAs from EGFP translational fusions. This diagram shows the probes designed based on the egfp gene sequence (Clontech) (3) and upstream-linked syt ( Genebank accession No. M55048) (4) or NaChBac sequence (kindly provided by Dr. Dejian Ren) (5) through Northern hybridization. 1 S4. NaChBac Insert Sequence. EcoRI (GAATTC) & XbaI (TCTAGA) sites are underlined. Translation start (ATG) and stop (TGA) codons are in bold. S5. Evolutionary relationships of metazoan animals and the distribution of RdRp genes. The metazoan phylogeny is compiled from (6),(7) and (8). The available genomes were screened for the presence of the RdRp gene (9, 10). Organisms whose names are underlined retain the gene; those not underlined have lost it. See (10) for details of the sequences identified as RdRp genes. S6. rrf-1 enhances eGFP silencing in a dsRNA –dependent manner while EGO-1conferred silencing is dsRNA-independent (refer to Fig 2).The crosses are the same as Fig 2 except that in this Figure, the UAST-syt.eGFP is located on chromosome II while eGFP.dsRNA.R is on chromosome III. S7. Cross to test direct silencing by superfly w; da-Gal4; UAST-ego-1 is reversible or irreversible. S8. Superfly w; da-Gal4; UAST-ego-1 silenced general driver da-Gal4 activated hairpin pblRNAi 4B(3.1), therefore rescued the progeny which otherwise would be killed at the pupal stage. S9. ego-1 can independently silence hairpin gene only under the control of UAST, which is strong for somatic cell expression, rather than UASP, which is for germline and somatic cell expression. Three parallel crosses were set up as follow to test if RRF-1 and EGO-1 can independently silence hairpin pblRNAi 4B(3.1).٭Please note: Cross in “C” was doubled in order to examine more progeny 2 S10. EGFP mRNAs detections with Northern blotting and Hybridization.~10 µg of each total RNA sample was running on the 1.2% Formaldehyde gel under ~80V for ~2h, followed by overnight blotting onto Amersham HybondTM-N+ membrane (GE Healthcare), and the membrane was hybridized with EGFP DNA probe labelled with Ready-to-go DNA labelling Beads (-dCTP) (Amersham Biosciences), finally exposed and developed using a PhosphorImager as before. S11A-B. qRT-PCRs quantify rrf-1 and ego-1 expression. To demonstrate that RdRp itself was expressed; we performed qRT-PCR to quantify the mRNAs of the transgenes in various transgenic flies. Each reaction had 4 replicates. A normalized value for relative ego-1 expression in each line was obtained by calculating the mean from the 4 replicates minus the mean values of no RT controls, then dividing by the actin mean value. S12 A & B: Schematic diagrams of restriction sites of HpaII and HhaI in EGFP coding region (A), and transgenes’ promoter region (B), as well as its adjacent sequences, respectively. Red fragments denote the fragment in EGFP or promoter detected by the probes; the green fragments denote the adjacent plasmid sequence (upstream) or the fly genome sequence (downstream) (A)/ transgenes’ (syt-eGFP or ego-1) sequences (downstream) (B). S13. Promoter region sequence alignment. Seq29 (S29) sequence was detected methylated in the region comprised of 5 x Gal4 UAS and the first half of the HS promoter. Supplementary Methods S1. Crosses that set up for silencing of the Drosophila endogenous gene pebble with or without RdRps in Fig 1. A: w; En-Gal4; + x w; pblRNAi4B; + B: w; En-Gal4; P-ego-1 x w; pblRNAi4B; + C: w; En-Gal4/CyO; T-rrf-1 x w; pblRNAi4B; + 3 ↓ Select progenies without CyO D: w; En-Gal4; T-ego-1 x w; pblRNAi4B; + ↓ Wild type phenotype (picture not shown) S2. Crosses to obtain fluorescence or fluorescence-silenced larvae in Fig. 2 A: w; da-Gal4; + x w; +; UAS-syt.EGFP B: w; da-Gal4; + x w; UAS-GFP.dsRNA.R; UAS-syt.eGFP C: w; da-Gal4; T-rrf-1 x w; UAS-GFP.dsRNA.R; UAS-syt.eGFP D: w; da-Gal4; T-rrf-1 x w; +; UAS-syt.eGFP E: w; da-Gal4; T-ego-1 x w; UAS-GFP.dsRNA.R; UAS-syt.eGFP F: w1118 G: w; da-Gal4; T-ego-1 x w; +; UAS-syt.eGFP H: w; da-Gal4; + x w; UAS-NaChBac-EGFP; + I: w; da-Gal4; + x w; UAS-NaChBac-EGFP ; UAS-GFP.dsRNA.R J: w; da-Gal4; T-rrf-1 x w; UAS-NaChBac-EGFP ; UAS-GFP.dsRNA.R K: w; da-Gal4; T-rrf-1 x w; UAS-NaChBac-EGFP ; + L: w; da-Gal4; T-ego-1 x w; UAS-NaChBac-EGFP ; UAS-GFP.dsRNA.R M: w; da-Gal4; T-ego-1 x w; UAS-NaChBac-EGFP ; + N: w; da-Gal4; + x W ;٭UAS-Rab4-mRFP; + O: w; da-Gal4; T-rrf-1 x W ;٭UAS-Rab4-mRFP; + P: w; da-Gal4; T-ego-1 x W ;٭UAS-Rab4-mRFP; + 4 S3. Crosses to obtain fluorescence or fluorescence-silenced adult flies in Fig. 5 A: w; da-Gal4; UAS-syt.EGFP/Tm6b x w; T-ego-1; UAS-syt.EGFP ↓ w; da-Gal4/T-ego-1; UAS-syt.EGFP/Tm6b B: w; da-Gal4; UAS-syt.EGFP/Tm6b x w; T-ego-1; UAS-syt.EGFP ↓ w; da-Gal4/T-ego-1; UAS-syt.EGFP Supplementary Tables Table S1. Fly strains from Ozdros (Australia) Genotype Function Chromosom e Homozygo us W; UAS-pblRNAi.4B;+ dsRNA targeting pebble gene II Yes dsRNA targeting egfp gene II Yes W; +; UAS-GFP.dsRNA.R dsRNA targeting egfp gene III Yes W; Da-Gal4;+ General driver Tissue specific driver for activation on the posterior compartment of the wing disc II Yes II Yes W; UAS-GFP.dsRNA.R; + W; En-Gal4;+ 5 Table S2. Fly strains from Bloomington (USA) Genotype Function Bloomington ID Number Chromosome Homozygous W ;٭+; UASsyt.eGFP Synaptotagmin gene (syt) fused to egfp gene BL6926 III Yes Y1W ;٭UASNaChBac-EGFP; + Bacteria NaChBac gene fused to egfp gene BL9466 II Yes W ;٭UAS-Rab4mRFP; + Rab4 fused to rfp gene BL8505 II Yes Table S3. Transgenic flies created in this study for egfp gene silencing in Fig 2 and Fig 3. Genotype Function Bloomington stock used Homozygous W; da-Gal4; UAST-ego-1 Da-Gal4 General activation of ego-1 No Yes W; da-Gal4; UAST-rrf-1 Da-Gal4 General activation of rrf-1 No Yes W; UAS-GFP.dsRNA.R; UAS-syt.eGFP egfp dsRNA for targeting syt.eGFP W; UASNaChBac.EGFP; UASGFP.dsRNA.R egfp dsRNA for targeting NaChBac.EGFP Tissue specific driver for activation rrf-1 on the posterior compartment of the wing disc Tissue specific driver for activation ego1on the posterior compartment of the wing disc Tissue specific driver for activation ego1on the posterior compartment of the wing disc W; En-Gal4/CyO; T-rrf-1 W; En-Gal4; T-ego-1 W; En-Gal4; P-ego-1 6 Yes/GFP.dsRNA.R combined with BL6926 Yes/GFP.dsRNA.R combined with BL9466 Yes Yes No No No Yes No Yes Table S4. PCR primers for Probes used for Northern Hybridization or RNAse protection assay For Northern Hybridization Probe ID Primer Sequences for probe preparation Pebble Probe 1 For:CGATATCGAAGGATGTCCG Rev:GCATGCTTGCACAGTCCT √ Pebble Probe 2 For:TCGATTGTACCACCAGTCC Rev:GAATATATCGAAGATGGCCA √ Pebble Probe 3 Pebble Probe 4 syt sense probe syt antisense probe NaChBac sense probe NaChBac anti-sense probe For:TAATACGACTCACTATAGGGAGGTGCCC AGTATCAGTCTGC √ Rev:GAATATATCGAAGATGGCCA For:TAATACGACTCACTATAGGGAGGCTTTA ACAAAACGCCCAAC Rev:GCATGCTTGCACAGTCCT For:TAATACGACTCACTATAGGGAGGACTGT CTGATCCATATGTG Rev:AATACGATCGTAGTCCACC For:TAATACGACTCACTATAGGGAGGAATAC GATCGTAGTCCACC Rev: ACTGTCTGATCCATATGTG For:TAATACGACTCACTATAGGGAGGCGGC GTTAGGAAACATCTT Rev:CTTCGGCAAAAATTGGTCGC For:TAATACGACTCACTATAGGGAGGCTTCG GCAAAAATTGGTCGC Rev: CGGCGTTAGGAAACATCTT For:TAATACGACTCACTATAGGGAGGAGTTC egfp sense GAGGGCGACACC probe Rev:TCGATGTTGTGGCGGATC For:TAATACGACTCACTATAGGGAGGTCGAT egfp antiGTTGTGGCGGATC sense probe Rev: AGTTCGAGGGCGACACC 7 For RNAse protection assay √ √ √ √ √ √ √ Note: The red sequences in the table are the T7 RNA polymerase promoter adapted from HybspeedTM RPA kit (Ambion). 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