AGO2/Argonaute-2 Protein, Mouse (sf9, His, solution)

AGO2, a pivotal player in RNA-mediated gene silencing (RNAi) orchestrated by the RNA-induced silencing complex (RISC), is indispensable for diverse regulatory processes. The 'minimal RISC' configuration involves AGO2 tethered to a short guide RNA, such as microRNA (miRNA) or short interfering RNA (siRNA), directing RISC to target mRNAs for silencing. The silencing mechanism hinges on the complementarity between the guide RNA and its target mRNA. Perfect complementarity prompts AGO2-mediated endonucleolytic cleavage, whereas partial complementarity inhibits translation independently of endonuclease activity. AGO2 can impede translation initiation by binding to the 7-methylguanosine cap, hindering eIF4-E recruitment, or through interaction with EIF6, preventing the association of ribosomal subunits. This translational repression leads to mRNA accumulation in cytoplasmic processing bodies (P-bodies), potentially culminating in mRNA degradation. Notably, AGO2 exhibits versatility by both repressing and promoting translation under distinct growth conditions. Furthermore, AGO2 is integral to transcriptional gene silencing (TGS), where short RNAs, such as antigene RNAs, guide the repression of complementary promoter regions. In the context of microbial infection, AGO2 associates with viral miRNA-like small RNA, such as CoV2-miR-O7a during Sars-CoV-2 infection, potentially repressing specific mRNAs, such as BATF2, to evade the interferon response.