Recruitment of Armitage and Yb to a transcript triggers its phased processing into primary piRNAs in Drosophila ovaries.

ABSTRACT: Small RNAs called PIWI -interacting RNAs (piRNAs) are essential for transposon control and fertility in animals. Primary processing is the small RNA biogenesis pathway that uses long single-stranded RNA precursors to generate millions of individual piRNAs, but the molecular mechanisms that identify a transcript as a precursor are poorly understood. Here we demonstrate that artificial tethering of the piRNA biogenesis factor, Armi, to a transcript is sufficient to direct it into primary processing in Drosophila ovaries and in an ovarian cell culture model. In the fly ovarian somatic follicle cells, the transcript becomes cleaved in a stepwise manner, with a 5'→3' directionality, liberating U1-containing ~24 nt piRNAs that are loaded into Piwi. Although uridines are preferred for generation

SUBMITTER: Pandey RR 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC5578672 | biostudies-literature | 2017 Aug

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature