A nuclear Argonaute promotes germline immortality and epigenetic inheritance across generations

ABSTRACT: dsRNA-mediated gene silencing (RNAi) can be inherited for multiple generations in C. elegans. To understand this process we conducted a genetic screen for animals defective for transmitting RNAi silencing signals to future generations. This screen identified the gene heritable RNAi defective (hrde)-1. hrde-1 encodes an Argonaute (Ago) that associates with siRNAs in germ cells of the progeny of animals exposed to dsRNA. In nuclei of these germ cells, HRDE-1 engages the Nrde nuclear RNAi pathway to promote RNAi inheritance, and directs H3K9me3 chromatin marks at RNAi targeted genomic loci. Under normal growth conditions, HRDE-1 associates with endogenously expressed small RNAs, which direct nuclear gene silencing in germ cells. In RNAi inheritance mutant animals, silencing is lost over gener

ORGANISM(S): Caenorhabditis elegans

SUBMITTER: Sam Gu 

PROVIDER: E-GEOD-38041 | biostudies-arrayexpress |

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-arrayexpress