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However, their interactions with innate antiviral immunity, especially RNA interference (RNAi), are not well known. Most research on RNAi pathways in mosquitoes is focused on the tropical vector mosquito Aedes aegypti. Here, we investigated the production of arbovirus-specific small RNAs in Cx. quinquefasciatus-derived HSU cells. Furthermore, by silencing RNAi-related proteins, we investigated the antiviral role of these proteins for two different arboviruses: Semliki Forest virus (SFV) and Bunyamwera orthobunyavirus (BUNV). Our results showed an expansion of Ago2 and Piwi6 in Cx. quinquefasciatus compared to Ae. aegypti. While silencing Ago2a and Ago2b increased BUNV replication, only Ago2b showed antiviral activity against SFV. Our results suggest differences in the function of Cx. quinquefasciatus and Ae. aegypti RNAi proteins and highlight the virus-specific function of these proteins in Cx. quinquefasciatus.<\/jats:p>","DOI":"10.3390\/v15020436","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2023,2,6]],"date-time":"2023-02-06T04:08:07Z","timestamp":1675656487000},"page":"436","update-policy":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.3390\/mdpi_crossmark_policy","source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":12,"title":["Antiviral RNAi Response in Culex quinquefasciatus-Derived HSU Cells"],"prefix":"10.3390","volume":"15","author":[{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0001-8557-9442","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Mine","family":"Altinli","sequence":"first","affiliation":[{"name":"Bernhard-Nocht-Institute for Tropical Medicine, 20359 Hamburg, Germany"},{"name":"German Center for Infection Research, Partner Site Hamburg-L\u00fcbeck-Borstel-Riems, 20359 Hamburg, Germany"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Mayke","family":"Leggewie","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Bernhard-Nocht-Institute for Tropical Medicine, 20359 Hamburg, Germany"},{"name":"German Center for Infection Research, Partner Site Hamburg-L\u00fcbeck-Borstel-Riems, 20359 Hamburg, Germany"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Jonny","family":"Schulze","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Bernhard-Nocht-Institute for Tropical Medicine, 20359 Hamburg, Germany"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0002-6661-8810","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Rashwita","family":"Gyanwali","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Bernhard-Nocht-Institute for Tropical Medicine, 20359 Hamburg, Germany"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Marlis","family":"Badusche","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Bernhard-Nocht-Institute for Tropical Medicine, 20359 Hamburg, Germany"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0001-6673-4697","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Vattipally B.","family":"Sreenu","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"MRC-University of Glasgow-Center for Virus Research, Glasgow G61 1QH, UK"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Janina","family":"Fuss","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Institute of Clinical Molecular Biology (IKMB), Kiel University, 24105 Kiel, Germany"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Esther","family":"Schnettler","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Bernhard-Nocht-Institute for Tropical Medicine, 20359 Hamburg, Germany"},{"name":"German Center for Infection Research, Partner Site Hamburg-L\u00fcbeck-Borstel-Riems, 20359 Hamburg, Germany"},{"name":"Faculty of Mathematics, Informatics and Natural Sciences, Universit\u00e4t Hamburg, 20148 Hamburg, Germany"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]}],"member":"1968","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2023,2,4]]},"reference":[{"key":"ref_1","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"882","DOI":"10.1016\/j.tig.2017.09.002","article-title":"PiRNA Biogenesis in Drosophila Melanogaster","volume":"33","author":"Huang","year":"2017","journal-title":"Trends Genet."},{"key":"ref_2","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Campbell, C.L., Black, W.C., Hess, A.M., Foy, B.D., and Foy, B.D. 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