ABSTRACT: In the ciliate Paramecium tetraurelia, autogamy is a self-fertilization process, during which the zygotic nucleus results from the fusion of two identical gametic nuclei. This phenomenon occurs in response to starvation. It starts with meiosis of the germline nuclei (micronuclei or MIC) and fragmentation of the parental somatic nucleus (macronucleus or MAC). This is followed by mitotic division of one haploid nucleus issued from meiosis to yield two identical gametic nuclei, then karyogamy takes place, followed by mitosis of zygotic nucleus and differentiation of new MICs and MACs from the resulting copies of the zygotic nucleus. Within the developing new MACs, developmentally programmed DNA amplification and extensive genome rearrangements (precise excision of short non coding Internal Eliminated Sequences and chromosome fragmentation associated with the imprecise elimination of repetitive DNA) give rise to the highly polyploid somatic genome. To gain further insight into the complex regulation of these successive steps, we used whole genome microarrays to study the different gene networks that become activated throughout autogamy.
Project description:In the ciliate Paramecium tetraurelia, autogamy is a self-fertilization process, during which the zygotic nucleus results from the fusion of two identical gametic nuclei. This phenomenon occurs in response to starvation. It starts with meiosis of the germline nuclei (micronuclei or MIC) and fragmentation of the parental somatic nucleus (macronucleus or MAC). This is followed by mitotic division of one haploid nucleus issued from meiosis to yield two identical gametic nuclei, then karyogamy takes place, followed by mitosis of zygotic nucleus and differentiation of new MICs and MACs from the resulting copies of the zygotic nucleus. Within the developing new MACs, developmentally programmed DNA amplification and extensive genome rearrangements (precise excision of short non coding Internal Eliminated Sequences and chromosome fragmentation associated with the imprecise elimination of repetitive DNA) give rise to the highly polyploid somatic genome. To gain further insight into the complex regulation of these successive steps, we used whole genome microarrays to study the different gene networks that become activated throughout autogamy.
Project description:In the ciliate Paramecium tetraurelia, autogamy is a self-fertilization process, during which the zygotic nucleus results from the fusion of two identical gametic nuclei. This phenomenon occurs in response to starvation. It starts with meiosis of the germline nuclei (micronuclei or MIC) and fragmentation of the parental somatic nucleus (macronucleus or MAC). This is followed by mitotic division of one haploid nucleus issued from meiosis to yield two identical gametic nuclei, then karyogamy takes place, followed by mitosis of zygotic nucleus and differentiation of new MICs and MACs from the resulting copies of the zygotic nucleus. Within the developing new MACs, developmentally programmed DNA amplification and extensive genome rearrangements (precise excision of short non coding Internal Eliminated Sequences and chromosome fragmentation associated with the imprecise elimination of repetitive DNA) give rise to the highly polyploid somatic genome. To gain further insight into the complex regulation of these successive steps, we used whole genome microarrays to study the different gene networks that become activated throughout autogamy.
Project description:In the ciliate Paramecium tetraurelia, autogamy is a self-fertilization process, during which the zygotic nucleus results from the fusion of two identical gametic nuclei. This phenomenon occurs in response to starvation. It starts with meiosis of the germline nuclei (micronuclei or MIC) and fragmentation of the parental somatic nucleus (macronucleus or MAC). This is followed by mitotic division of one haploid nucleus issued from meiosis to yield two identical gametic nuclei, then karyogamy takes place, followed by mitosis of zygotic nucleus and differentiation of new MICs and MACs from the resulting copies of the zygotic nucleus. Within the developing new MACs, developmentally programmed DNA amplification and extensive genome rearrangements (precise excision of short non coding Internal Eliminated Sequences and chromosome fragmentation associated with the imprecise elimination of repetitive DNA) give rise to the highly polyploid somatic genome. To gain further insight into the complex regulation of these successive steps, we used whole genome microarrays to study the different gene networks that become activated throughout autogamy. Total RNA was extracted before the begining of autogamy (reference sample) and at 5 different time points during the process of autogamy. There are two biological replicates for each point.
Project description:In the ciliate Paramecium tetraurelia, autogamy is a self-fertilization process, during which the zygotic nucleus results from the fusion of two identical gametic nuclei. This phenomenon occurs in response to starvation. It starts with meiosis of the germline nuclei (micronuclei or MIC) and fragmentation of the parental somatic nucleus (macronucleus or MAC). This is followed by mitotic division of one haploid nucleus issued from meiosis to yield two identical gametic nuclei, then karyogamy takes place, followed by mitosis of zygotic nucleus and differentiation of new MICs and MACs from the resulting copies of the zygotic nucleus. Within the developing new MACs, developmentally programmed DNA amplification and extensive genome rearrangements (precise excision of short non coding Internal Eliminated Sequences and chromosome fragmentation associated with the imprecise elimination of repetitive DNA) give rise to the highly polyploid somatic genome. To gain further insight into the complex regulation of these successive steps, we used whole genome microarrays to study the different gene networks that become activated throughout autogamy. Total RNA was extracted before the begining of autogamy (reference sample) and at 3 different time points during the process of autogamy.
Project description:In the ciliate Paramecium tetraurelia, autogamy is a self-fertilization process, during which the zygotic nucleus results from the fusion of two identical gametic nuclei. This phenomenon occurs in response to starvation. It starts with meiosis of the germline nuclei (micronuclei or MIC) and fragmentation of the parental somatic nucleus (macronucleus or MAC). This is followed by mitotic division of one haploid nucleus issued from meiosis to yield two identical gametic nuclei, then karyogamy takes place, followed by mitosis of zygotic nucleus and differentiation of new MICs and MACs from the resulting copies of the zygotic nucleus. Within the developing new MACs, developmentally programmed DNA amplification and extensive genome rearrangements (precise excision of short non coding Internal Eliminated Sequences and chromosome fragmentation associated with the imprecise elimination of repetitive DNA) give rise to the highly polyploid somatic genome. To gain further insight into the complex regulation of these successive steps, we used whole genome microarrays to study the different gene networks that become activated throughout autogamy. Total RNA was extracted before the begining of autogamy (c3_vegetative cells : reference sample) and at 5 different time points during the process of autogamy.
Project description:The unicellular eukaryote Paramecium tetraurelia contains functionally distinct nuclei: germline micronuclei (MICs) and a somatic macronucleus (MAC). During sexual reproduction, the MIC genome is reorganized into a new MAC genome and the old MAC is lost. Almost 45,000 unique Internal Eliminated Sequences (IESs) located throughout the genome require precise excision to guarantee a functional new MAC genome. Here, we characterize a pair of paralogous PHD finger proteins involved in DNA elimination. DevPF1, the early-expressed paralog, is present in only some of the gametic and post-zygotic nuclei during meiosis. Both DevPF1 and DevPF2 localize in the new developing MACs, where IESs excision occurs. In DevPF2 knockdown (KD), long IESs are preferentially retained and late-expressed small RNAs decrease; no length preference for retained IESs was observed in DevPF1-KD and development-specific small RNAs were abolished. The expression of at least two genes from the new MAC seems to be influenced by DevPF1- and DevPF2-KD. Thus, both PHD fingers are crucial for new MAC genome development, with distinct functionalities, potentially via regulation of non-coding and coding transcription in the MICs and new MACs.
Project description:Total RNA was extracted at different stages (TV, T0, T11 and T20) during autogamy of strain d4-2. Genes specifically induced during autogamy were identified following analysis of microarray hybridization data
Project description:P. tetraurelia, like all ciliates, is a unicellular eukaryote processing two different kinds of nuclei, germline micronuclei (mic) and somatic macronucleus (mac). The diploid micronuclei undergo meiosis during sexual events to transmit the germline genome to the next generation. The highly polyploid mac (~800 n) is responsible for transcription during the life cycle but is lost after fertilisation; the new mic and mac develop from mitotic copies of the zygotic nucleus. During development of the new mac, the germline genome is amplified from 2n to ~800n and is extensively rearranged by two distinct kinds of DNA elimination. The micronuclear 50 to 60 Chromosomes are fragmented into ~200 shorter molecules caped by de novo telomere addition as a result of the imprecise elimination transposons and minisatellites. Moreover, approximately 60,000 short, single-copy elements called internal eliminated sequences (IESs) are precisely removed from coding and non-coding sequences. It was shown that the rearrangements in the developing mac appear to reproduce the rearrangements observed in the old mac, implying the existence of homology dependent cross talk between germline and somatic genomes during sexual event. To understand the molecular mechanisms and the genetic control involved in genome rearrangements, we studied the evolution of the transcriptome during Paramecium tetraurelia sexual reproduction.
Project description:Total RNA was extracted at different stages (TV, T0, T11 and T20) during autogamy of strain d4-2. Genes specifically induced during autogamy were identified following analysis of microarray hybridization data 3 technical replicates of the time course were hybridized Subset one and three were labelled with Cy3 Subset two was labelled with Cy5
Project description:At each sexual cycle, during development of the somatic macronucleus (MAC) from the germline micronucleus (MIC), the genome of the ciliate Paramecium tetraurelia is massively rearranged through the reproducible elimination of germline-specific sequences. It has been reported previously that targeting of these sequences is mediated by non-protein-coding RNAs including different classes of small RNAs and longer non-coding transcripts. Using RNA interference, we showed that TFIIS4 gene encoding development-specific TFIIS elongation factor is essential for the formation of a functional somatic genome. We demonstrated that genome rearrangements taking place during MAC development were inhibited in TFIIS4-depleted cells, which led to high lethality in the sexual progeny. The role of TFIIS4 elongation factor in coding transcription at the genome-wide level was studied by performing a microarray hybridization experiment using RNA samples extracted during vegetative growth and at five time points during the progression of the sexual cycle (autogamy). Total RNA samples were extracted during vegetative growth and at five different time points of autogamy from mass cultures fed with bacteria producing dsRNA to induce TFIIS4 or ICL7a silencing. TFIIS4 gene encodes TFIIS elongation factor and is strongly induced during autogamy, a self-fertilization process. RNAi against TFIIS4 leads to strong lethality in post-autogamous progeny. ICL7a is a non-essential gene; the loss of function of this gene by with dsRNA feeding results in mutant phenotypes: absence of intraciliary lattice and defect in calcium-induced cell contractility.