Small regulatory RNAs inhibit RNA Polymerase II during the elongation phase of transcription

Eukaryotic cells express a wide variety of endogenous small regulatory RNAs that regulate heterochromatin formation, developmental timing, defense against parasitic nucleic acids, and genome rearrangement. Many small regulatory RNAs are thought to function in nuclei 1-2. For instance, in plants and fungi siRNAs associate with nascent transcripts and direct chromatin and/or DNA modifications 1-2. To further understand the biological roles of small regulatory RNAs, we conducted a genetic screen to identify factors required for RNA interference (RNAi) in C. elegans nuclei 3. Here we show that nrde-2 encodes an evolutionarily conserved protein that is required for small interfering (si)RNA-mediated silencing in nuclei. NRDE-2 associates with the Argonaute protein NRDE-3 within nuclei and is recruited by NRDE-3/siRNA complexes to nascent transcripts that have been targeted by RNAi. We find that nuclear-localized siRNAs direct a NRDE-2-dependent silencing of pre-mRNAs 3’ to sites of RNAi, a NRDE-2-dependent accumulation of RNA Polymerase (RNAP) II at genomic loci targeted by RNAi, and NRDE-2-dependent decreases in RNAP II occupancy and RNAP II transcriptional activity 3’ to sites of RNAi. These results define NRDE-2 as a component of the nuclear RNAi machinery and demonstrate that metazoan siRNAs can silence nuclear-localized RNAs co-transcriptionally. In addition, these results establish a novel mode of RNAP II regulation; siRNA-directed recruitment of NRDE factors that inhibit RNAP II during the elongation phase of transcription.