Dicer1, Dcr-1 homolog (Drosophila), also known as DICER1, is a protein which in humans is encoded by the DICER1 gene. It is present in many organisms as Dicer.

This gene encodes a protein possessing an RNA helicase motif containing a DEXH box in its amino terminus and an RNA motif in the carboxy terminus. The encoded protein functions as a ribonuclease and is required by the RNA interference and small temporal RNA (stRNA) pathways to produce the active small RNA component that represses gene expression. Alternative splicing results in multiple transcript variants. [provided by RefSeq, Sep 2010].
Function: Required for formation of the RNA induced silencing complex (RISC). Component of the RISC loading complex (RLC), also known as the micro-RNA (miRNA) loading complex (miRLC), which is composed of DICER1, EIF2C2/AGO2 and TARBP2. Within the RLC/miRLC, DICER1 and TARBP2 are required to process precursor miRNAs (pre-miRNAs) to mature miRNAs and then load them onto EIF2C2/AGO2. EIF2C2/AGO2 bound to the mature miRNA constitutes the minimal RISC and may subsequently dissociate from DICER1 and TARBP2. Also cleaves double-stranded RNA to produce short interfering RNAs (siRNAs) which target the selective destruction of complementary RNAs.