TY - JOUR
T1 - Piwi and piRNAs Act Upstream of an Endogenous siRNA Pathway to Suppress Tc3 Transposon Mobility in the Caenorhabditis elegans Germline
AU - Das, Partha P.
AU - Bagijn, Marloes P.
AU - Goldstein, Leonard D.
AU - Woolford, Julie R.
AU - Lehrbach, Nicolas J.
AU - Sapetschnig, Alexandra
AU - Buhecha, Heeran R.
AU - Gilchrist, Michael J.
AU - Howe, Kevin L.
AU - Stark, Rory
AU - Matthews, Nik
AU - Berezikov, Eugene
AU - Ketting, René F.
AU - Tavaré, Simon
AU - Miska, Eric A.
PY - 2008/7/11
Y1 - 2008/7/11
N2 - The Piwi proteins of the Argonaute superfamily are required for normal germline development in Drosophila, zebrafish, and mice and associate with 24-30 nucleotide RNAs termed piRNAs. We identify a class of 21 nucleotide RNAs, previously named 21U-RNAs, as the piRNAs of C. elegans. Piwi and piRNA expression is restricted to the male and female germline and independent of many proteins in other small-RNA pathways, including DCR-1. We show that Piwi is specifically required to silence Tc3, but not other Tc/mariner DNA transposons. Tc3 excision rates in the germline are increased at least 100-fold in piwi mutants as compared to wild-type. We find no evidence for a Ping-Pong model for piRNA amplification in C. elegans. Instead, we demonstrate that Piwi acts upstream of an endogenous siRNA pathway in Tc3 silencing. These data might suggest a link between piRNA and siRNA function.
AB - The Piwi proteins of the Argonaute superfamily are required for normal germline development in Drosophila, zebrafish, and mice and associate with 24-30 nucleotide RNAs termed piRNAs. We identify a class of 21 nucleotide RNAs, previously named 21U-RNAs, as the piRNAs of C. elegans. Piwi and piRNA expression is restricted to the male and female germline and independent of many proteins in other small-RNA pathways, including DCR-1. We show that Piwi is specifically required to silence Tc3, but not other Tc/mariner DNA transposons. Tc3 excision rates in the germline are increased at least 100-fold in piwi mutants as compared to wild-type. We find no evidence for a Ping-Pong model for piRNA amplification in C. elegans. Instead, we demonstrate that Piwi acts upstream of an endogenous siRNA pathway in Tc3 silencing. These data might suggest a link between piRNA and siRNA function.
KW - DEVBIO
KW - RNA
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=46149092009&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1016/j.molcel.2008.06.003
DO - 10.1016/j.molcel.2008.06.003
M3 - Article
C2 - 18571451
AN - SCOPUS:46149092009
VL - 31
SP - 79
EP - 90
JO - Molecular Cell
JF - Molecular Cell
SN - 1097-2765
IS - 1
ER -