We obtained the sequences of the RNAi pathway core components in the genome of P. equestris through a local BLASTx search with corresponding sequences of Oryza sativa as queries (Cai et al., 2015 (link); Kapoor et al., 2008 (link); Niu et al., 2016 (link)). Furthermore, we used the sRNA target analysis server psRNATarget (Dai and Zhao, 2011 (link)) to predict putative target genes of P. equestris by CymMV- and ORSV-derived siRNAs. We then investigated the transcript levels of these core components and target genes by RT-qPCR assay on a Quant-Studio 6 Flex Real-Time PCR System (Life Technologies, Carlsbad, CA, USA) using the SYBR Green PCR Master-Mix kit (Promega, Madison, WI, USA) with primers (Table 1) as described previously (Lan et al., 2015 (link), 2018a (link)).