• Dicer enzymes cleave aberrant long double-stranded RNAs derived from viruses etc. and produce small RNAs that suppress the expression of target genes. This phenomenon is called RNA interference or RNAi.
• By utilizing the single-molecule imaging technology, we succeeded in directly tracing how long double-stranded RNAs are cleaved by Dicer-2 from the fruit fly, one of the most commonly used model organisms.
• We found that Dicer-2 prefers to cleave double-stranded RNAs in a processive manner, regardless of the RNA terminal structures or the presence of its partner protein, enabling efficient elimination of aberrant RNAs.
• This achievement advances our understanding of the molecular mechanism of RNAi and contributes to the future development of basic biological research and RNA therapeutics.

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