Maternal mRNA deadenylation and decay by the piRNA pathway in the early Drosophila embryo.

ABSTRACT: Piwi-associated RNAs (piRNAs), a specific class of 24- to 30-nucleotide-long RNAs produced by the Piwi-type of Argonaute proteins, have a specific germline function in repressing transposable elements. This repression is thought to involve heterochromatin formation and transcriptional and post-transcriptional silencing. The piRNA pathway has other essential functions in germline stem cell maintenance and in maintaining germline DNA integrity. Here we uncover an unexpected function of the piRNA pathway in the decay of maternal messenger RNAs and in translational repression in the early embryo. A subset of maternal mRNAs is degraded in the embryo at the maternal-to-zygotic transition. In Drosophila, maternal mRNA degradation depends on the RNA-binding protein Smaug and the deadenylase CCR4,

SUBMITTER: Rouget C 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4505748 | biostudies-literature | 2010 Oct

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature