Mitochondrial double-stranded RNA triggers antiviral signalling in humans

Mitochondria are descendants of endosymbiotic bacteria and retain essential prokaryotic features such as a compact circular genome. Consequently, in mammals, mitochondrial DNA is subjected to bidirectional transcription that generates overlapping transcripts, which are capable of forming long double-stranded RNA structures1,2. However, to our knowledge, mitochondrial double-stranded RNA has not been previously characterized in vivo. Here we...