Family

Protein argonaute-2 (IPR028602)

Short name: AGO2

Overlapping homologous superfamilies

None.

Family relationships

None.

Description

Argonaute proteins are involved in RNA interference (RNAi) and microRNA (miRNA) pathways. They can be classified into three paralogous groups: Argonaute-like proteins, which are similar to Arabidopsis thaliana AGO1; Piwi-like proteins, which are closely related to D. melanogaster PIWI (P-element induced wimpy testis); and the Caenorhabditis elegans-specific group 3 Argonautes [PMID: 18073770].

Protein argonaute-2 (AGO2) belongs to the first group (Argonaute-like proteins). It is a components of the RNA-induced silencing complex (RISC) that functions in RNA-mediated gene silencing (RNAi) [PMID: 15284456]. AGO2 is the catalytic engine that drives mRNA cleavage in the RNAi pathway [PMID: 15284456]. It is also the primary AGO variant involved in modulating expression of progesterone receptor by antigene RNAs [PMID: 20675357]. AGO1 and AGO2 reside in three complexes with distinct Dicer and RNA-induced silencing complex activities [PMID: 17932509]. The structure of AGO2 has been solved [PMID: 22539551].

GO terms

Biological Process

GO:0031047 gene silencing by RNA
GO:0006355 regulation of transcription, DNA-templated

Molecular Function

GO:0070551 endoribonuclease activity, cleaving siRNA-paired mRNA

Cellular Component

GO:0016442 RISC complex

Contributing signatures

Signatures from InterPro member databases are used to construct an entry.
HAMAP