PiRNA during germline development in Drosophila
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ABSTRACT:
PROVIDER: PRJEB18538 | ENA |
REPOSITORIES: ENA
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Project description:In Drosophila, Piwi proteins associate with Piwi-interacting RNAs (piRNAs) and protect the germline genome by silencing mobile genetic elements. This defense system acts in germline and gonadal somatic tissue to preserve germline development. Genetic control for these silencing pathways varies greatly between tissues of the gonad. Here, we identified Vreteno (Vret), a novel gonad-specific protein essential for germline development. Vret is required for piRNA-based transposon regulation in both germline and somatic gonadal tissues. We show that Vret, which contains Tudor domains, associates physically with Piwi and Aubergine (Aub), stabilizing these proteins via a gonad-specific mechanism, absent in other fly tissues. In the absence of vret, Piwi-bound piRNAs are lost without changes in piRNA precursor transcript production, supporting a role for Vret in primary piRNA biogenesis. In the germline, piRNAs can engage in an Aub/Argonaute 3 (AGO3)-dependent amplification in the absence of Vret, suggesting that Vret function can distinguish between primary piRNAs loaded into Piwi/Aub complexes and piRNAs engaged in the amplification cycle. We propose that Vret acts at an early step in primary piRNA processing where it plays an essential role in transposon regulation. These studies show that vreteno (vret) has a role in germline development and primary piRNA regulation in Drosophila. Transposable element expression profiles from Drosophila ovaries mutant for vreteno, piwi and aubergine were compared using genome-wide mRNA expression profiling by Affymetrix GeneChip arrays (Drosophila 2.0). Key targets were validated by qPCR experiments.
2011-09-28 | E-GEOD-30360 | biostudies-arrayexpress
Project description:In Drosophila, Piwi proteins associate with Piwi-interacting RNAs (piRNAs) and protect the germline genome by silencing mobile genetic elements. This defense system acts in germline and gonadal somatic tissue to preserve germline development. Genetic control for these silencing pathways varies greatly between tissues of the gonad. Here, we identified Vreteno (Vret), a novel gonad-specific protein essential for germline development. Vret is required for piRNA-based transposon regulation in both germline and somatic gonadal tissues. We show that Vret, which contains Tudor domains, associates physically with Piwi and Aubergine (Aub), stabilizing these proteins via a gonad-specific mechanism, absent in other fly tissues. In the absence of vret, Piwi-bound piRNAs are lost without changes in piRNA precursor transcript production, supporting a role for Vret in primary piRNA biogenesis. In the germline, piRNAs can engage in an Aub/Argonaute 3 (AGO3)-dependent amplification in the absence of Vret, suggesting that Vret function can distinguish between primary piRNAs loaded into Piwi/Aub complexes and piRNAs engaged in the amplification cycle. We propose that Vret acts at an early step in primary piRNA processing where it plays an essential role in transposon regulation. These studies show that vreteno (vret) has a role in germline development and primary piRNA regulation in Drosophila.
2011-09-29 | GSE30360 | GEO
Project description:In the male mouse germline, PIWI-interacting RNAs (piRNAs), bound by the PIWI protein MIWI2 (PIWIL4), guide DNA methylation of young active transposons through SPOCD1. However, the underlying mechanisms of SPOCD1-mediated piRNA-directed transposon methylation and whether this pathway functions to protect the human germline remains unknown. We identified loss-of-function variants in human SPOCD1 that cause defective transposon silencing and male infertility. Through the analysis of one of these pathogenic alleles, we discovered that the uncharacterised protein C19ORF84 interacts with SPOCD1. DNMT3C, the DNA methyltransferase responsible for transposon methylation, associates with SPOCD1 and C19ORF84 in foetal gonocytes. Furthermore, C19ORF84 is essential for piRNA-directed DNA methylation and male mouse fertility. Finally, C19ORF84 mediates the in vivo association of SPOCD1 with the de novo methylation machinery. In summary, we have discovered a conserved role for the human piRNA pathway in transposon silencing and C19ORF84, an uncharacterised protein essential for orchestrating piRNA-directed DNA methylation.
2024-02-14 | PXD047331 | Pride
Project description:The Drosophila piRNA pathway provides an RNA-based immune system that defends the germline genome against selfish genetic elements. Two inter-related branches of the piRNA system exist: somatic cells that support oogenesis only employ Piwi, whereas germ cells utilize a more elaborated pathway centered on the three gonad-specific Argonaute proteins Piwi, Aubergine, and Argonaute3. While several key factors of each branch have been identified, our current knowledge is insufficient to explain the complex workings of the piRNA machinery. Here, we report a reverse genetic screen spanning the ovarian transcriptome in an attempt to uncover the full repertoire of genes required for piRNA-mediated transposon silencing in the female germline. Our screen reveals new key factors of piRNA-mediated transposon silencing, including the novel piRNA biogenesis factors, CG2183 (GASZ) and Deadlock. Last, our data uncovers a previously unanticipated set of factors preferentially required for repression of different transposons types. Examination of small RNA levels from nos-GAL4 or tj-GAL4 driven UAS-dsRNA knockdowns of control genes and piRNA pathway components in ovaries of Drosophila melanogaster by deep sequencing (using Illumina HiSeq2000).
2013-05-10 | E-GEOD-46099 | biostudies-arrayexpress
Project description:The Drosophila piRNA pathway provides an RNA-based immune system that defends the germline genome against selfish genetic elements. Two inter-related branches of the piRNA system exist: somatic cells that support oogenesis only employ Piwi, whereas germ cells utilize a more elaborated pathway centered on the three gonad-specific Argonaute proteins Piwi, Aubergine, and Argonaute3. While several key factors of each branch have been identified, our current knowledge is insufficient to explain the complex workings of the piRNA machinery. Here, we report a reverse genetic screen spanning the ovarian transcriptome in an attempt to uncover the full repertoire of genes required for piRNA-mediated transposon silencing in the female germline. Our screen reveals new key factors of piRNA-mediated transposon silencing, including the novel piRNA biogenesis factors, CG2183 (GASZ) and Deadlock. Last, our data uncovers a previously unanticipated set of factors preferentially required for repression of different transposons types. Examination of total RNA levels from nos-GAL4 or tj-GAL4 driven UAS-dsRNA knockdowns of control genes and piRNA pathway components in ovaries of Drosophila melanogaster by deep sequencing (using Illumina HiSeq2000).
2013-05-10 | E-GEOD-46100 | biostudies-arrayexpress
Project description:The Drosophila piRNA pathway provides an RNA-based immune system that defends the germline genome against selfish genetic elements. Two inter-related branches of the piRNA system exist: somatic cells that support oogenesis only employ Piwi, whereas germ cells utilize a more elaborated pathway centered on the three gonad-specific Argonaute proteins Piwi, Aubergine, and Argonaute3. While several key factors of each branch have been identified, our current knowledge is insufficient to explain the complex workings of the piRNA machinery. Here, we report a reverse genetic screen spanning the ovarian transcriptome in an attempt to uncover the full repertoire of genes required for piRNA-mediated transposon silencing in the female germline. Our screen reveals new key factors of piRNA-mediated transposon silencing, including the novel piRNA biogenesis factors, CG2183 (GASZ) and Deadlock. Last, our data uncovers a previously unanticipated set of factors preferentially required for repression of different transposons types.
2013-05-10 | GSE46100 | GEO
Project description:The Drosophila piRNA pathway provides an RNA-based immune system that defends the germline genome against selfish genetic elements. Two inter-related branches of the piRNA system exist: somatic cells that support oogenesis only employ Piwi, whereas germ cells utilize a more elaborated pathway centered on the three gonad-specific Argonaute proteins Piwi, Aubergine, and Argonaute3. While several key factors of each branch have been identified, our current knowledge is insufficient to explain the complex workings of the piRNA machinery. Here, we report a reverse genetic screen spanning the ovarian transcriptome in an attempt to uncover the full repertoire of genes required for piRNA-mediated transposon silencing in the female germline. Our screen reveals new key factors of piRNA-mediated transposon silencing, including the novel piRNA biogenesis factors, CG2183 (GASZ) and Deadlock. Last, our data uncovers a previously unanticipated set of factors preferentially required for repression of different transposons types.
2013-05-10 | GSE46099 | GEO
Project description:In mice, the PIWI-piRNA pathway is essential to re-establish transposon silencing during male germline reprogramming. The cytoplasmic PIWI protein MILI mediates piRNA-guided transposon RNA cleavage as well as piRNA amplification. MIWI2-bound piRNAs and its nuclear localization are proposed to be dependent upon MILI function. Here, we demonstrate the existence of a piRNA biogenesis pathway that in the absence of MILI that sustains partial MIWI2 function and reprogramming activity.
2017-04-25 | E-MTAB-5561 | biostudies-arrayexpress
Project description:PIWI-clade Argonaute proteins silence transposon expression in animal gonads. Their target specificity is defined by bound ~23-30nt piRNAs that are processed from single-stranded precursor transcripts via two distinct pathways. Primary piRNAs are defined by the endo-nuclease Zucchini, while biogenesis of secondary piRNAs depends on piRNA-guided transcript cleavage and results in piRNA amplification. Here, we analyze the inter-dependencies between these piRNA biogenesis pathways in the developing Drosophila ovary. We show that secondary piRNA-guided target slicing is the predominant mechanism that specifies transcripts—including those from piRNA clusters—as primary piRNA precursors and that defines the spectrum of Piwi-bound piRNAs in germline cells. Post-transcriptional silencing in the cytoplasm therefore enforces nuclear, transcriptional target silencing, which ensures the tight suppression of transposons during oogenesis. As target slicing also defines the nuclear piRNA pool during mouse spermatogenesis, our findings uncover an unexpected conceptual similarity between the mouse and fly piRNA pathways. To understand the hierarchical order of primary versus secondary piRNA biogenesis in Drosophila ovaries, we sequenced piRNAs bound to total-Piwi, germline-Piwi, Aubergine and Argonaute3 from ovaries of germline specific knockdowns of control, piwi, aub, ago3 single knockdowns and aub/ago3 double knockdowns. To determine changes in Transposable Element (TE) transcription or TE RNA steady state in perturbed piRNA pathway conditions, we performed Pol2-ChIP-sequencing and polyA bound RNA-sequencing from ovaries of multiple germline knockdown genotypes. We also sequenced genomic DNA from ovaries of control knockdowns to experimentally estimate the TE copy number in our genetic background. Finally, we used CAP-seq from germline specific Piwi depletions to identify the Transcriptional Start Sites (TSS) in TEs in a deregulated background. Replicates are labeled with R1, R2, R3, R4 where indicated.
2015-08-31 | E-GEOD-71775 | biostudies-arrayexpress
Project description:PIWI proteins and their guiding Piwi-interacting small RNAs (piRNAs) are crucial for fertility and transposon defense in the animal germline. In most species, the majority of piRNAs are produced from distinct large genomic loci, called piRNA clusters. It is assumed that germline-expressed piRNA clusters, particularly in Drosophila, act as master regulators to control the activity of transposons dispersed across the genome. Here, using synteny analysis, we show that large germline clusters are evolutionarily labile, arise at loci characterized by recurrent chromosomal rearrangements, and are mostly species-specific across the Drosophila genus. By engineering chromosomal deletions in D. melanogaster, we demonstrate that the three largest germline clusters, which the generation of >40% of all transposon-targeting piRNAs depend on, are neither required for fertility nor for the regulation of transposon activity in trans. We provide further evidence that dispersed active elements, rather than the regulatory action of large Drosophila germline clusters in trans, may be central for transposon defense.
2021-05-31 | GSE174561 | GEO