Arabidopsis AGO3 predominantly recruits 24-nt small RNAs to regulate epigenetic silencing.

Most Arabidopsis AGO proteins have been well studied, but the function of AGO3 remains elusive. Now a study has shown that, unexpectedly, AGO3 is functionally different from its closest paralogue AGO2, and instead shares similar function with AGO4 in the epigenetic pathway.