Project description:In flies, repeat-associated small interfering RNAs (rasiRNAs) ensure genomic stability by silencing endogenous selfish genetic elements such as retrotransposons and repetitive sequences. Here, we show that while small interfering RNAs (siRNAs) derive from both the sense and antisense strands of their double-stranded RNA precursors, rasiRNAs arise mainly from the antisense strand. rasiRNA production appear not to require Dicer-1, which makes microRNAs, or Dicer-2, which makes siRNAs, and rasiRNAs lack the 2´,3´ hydroxy termini characteristic of animal siRNA and miRNA. Unlike siRNAs and miRNAs, rasiRNAs function through the Piwi, rather than the Ago, Argonaute protein subfamily. Thus, rasiRNAs define a third RNA silencing pathway distinct from both the miRNA and RNAi pathways. Keywords: gene silencing; post-transcriptional gene regulation; short RNAs; RNAi; rasiRNAs; rasiRNA; microRNAs; microRNA; siRNAs; siRNA
Project description:Argonaute proteins of the PIWI-clade, complexed with PIWI-interacting RNAs (piRNAs), protect the animal germline genome by silencing transposable elements. One of the leading experimental systems for studying piRNA biology is the Drosophila melanogaster ovary. In addition to classical mutagenesis, transgenic RNA interference (RNAi), which enables tissue-specific silencing of gene expression, plays a central role in piRNA research. Here, we establish a versatile toolkit focused on piRNA biology that integrates transgenic RNAi in the germline, GFP-marker lines for key proteins of the piRNA pathway, and reporter transgenes to establish genetic hierarchies. We compare constitutive, pan-germline RNAi with an equally potent transgenic RNAi system that is activated only upon germ cell cyst formation. Stage specific RNAi allows investigating the role of genes essential for cell survival (e.g. nuclear RNA export or the SUMOylation pathways) in piRNA-dependent and independent transposon silencing. Our work forms the basis for an expandable genetic toolkit available from the Vienna Drosophila Resource Center.
Project description:Small interfering RNAs (siRNAs) direct RNA interference (RNAi) in eukaryotes. In flies, somatic cells produce siRNAs from exogenous double-stranded RNA as a defense against viral infection. Here, we identify 21-nt long, endogenous siRNAs (endo-siRNAs) corresponding to transposons and heterochromatic sequences in the somatic cells of Drosophila melanogaster. We also detected endo-siRNAs complementary to mRNAs: these siRNAs disproportionately mapped to the complementary regions of overlapping mRNAs predicted to form dsRNA in vivo. Normal accumulation of somatic endo-siRNAs requires the siRNA-generating ribonuclease, Dicer-2, and the RNAi effector protein, Ago2. We propose that endo-siRNAs generated by the fly RNAi pathway silence selfish genetic elements in the soma much as piRNAs do in the germ line. Keywords: Small RNA detection and quantification.
Project description:The piRNA pathway, which protects germline genomes from selfish elements such as transposons, operates in two modes: 1) cleavage of transcripts of selfish elements in the cytoplasm, and 2) their transcriptional silencing in the nucleus. Here we describe a novel mechanism by which these two modes exchange the information. We show that the nuclear subpathway component Piwi interacts with the nuage, the compartment that mediates the cytoplasmic subpathway, during mitosis of Drosophila spermatogonia. At the end of mitosis, Piwi leaves nuage to return to the nucleus. We found that dissociation of Piwi from nuage occurs at the depolymerizing microtubules of the central spindle, mediated by a microtubule-depolymerizing kinesin Klp10A. When Piwi’s return to the nucleus is delayed upon klp10A depletion, piRNA production is impacted, suggesting the importance of nuclear-cytoplasmic communication in piRNA biogenesis. We propose that cell cycle-dependent communication of piRNA subpathways plays important roles in coordinated piRNA production.