Project description:Nutrient-responsive oogenesis in Drosophila is a complex and dynamic process regulated, in part, by members of the Pc and Trx complexes. The recent finding that O-GlcNAc Transferase (ogt/sxc) is essential for Pc repression raises the question of whether this nutrient-sensing pathway plays a role in regulating oogenesis. OGT transfers O-GlcNAc to key transcriptional regulators in response to graded levels of the nutrient-derived precursor UDP-GlcNAc; O-GlcNAcase (OGA) catalyzes the removal of O-GlcNAc. Here we produced a null allele of oga (oga1) in Drosophila to examine its in vivo function. We found that oga mutant flies were viable, but that females displayed greatly reduced fecundity. The ovaries from the female OGA knockout exhibited a starvation-like phenotype, even under well-fed conditions. Germline stem cell division was slowed in the germarium of OGA knockout fly ovarioles. Ovaries from the oga1 mutants displayed significantly decreased H3K4 monomethylation in germline stem cells. The Trithorax family members Trx and Ash1 and Compass member Set1 histone methyltransferases are O-GlcNAc modified in oga1 mutant ovaries. Our results suggest that the loss of OGA disrupts oogenesis at least in part by interfering with H3K4 monomethylation in germ cells in the ovary. The findings also suggest that O-GlcNAc cycling is an essential part of the nutrient-responsive epigenetic machinery regulating Drosophila oogenesis in response to a changing nutrient supply.
Project description:Species of the genus Drosophila have served as favorite models in speciation studies, however genetic factors of the interspecific hybrid sterility are underinvestigated to date. Here we performed the analysis of reproductive incompatibilities of hybrid females in crossing Drosophila melanogaster females and Drosophila simulans males. Using transcriptomic data analysis, molecular, cellular and genetic approaches we analyzed differential gene expression, transposable element (TE) activity, piRNA biogenesis and functional defects of oogenesis in hybrids. A premature GSC loss was a most prominent defect of oogenesis in hybrid ovaries. Owing differential expression of genes encoding components of the piRNA pathway rhino and deadlock, functional RDCmel complex in hybrid ovaries was not assembled. At the same time the activity of RDCsim complex was maintained in hybrids, independently from the genomic origin of piRNA clusters. Despite identification of a cohort of overexpressed TEs in hybrid ovaries we found no evidences that their activity can be considered as the main cause of hybrid sterility. We revealed complex pattern of Vasa protein expression in hybrid germline, including partial AT-chX piRNA targeting of vasasim allele and significant developmental delay of vasamel expression. We came to the conclusions that complex multi-locus genetic changes between the species were responsible for hybrid sterility phenotype.