The somatic piRNA pathway controls germline transposition over generations.

ABSTRACT: Transposable elements (TEs) are parasitic DNA sequences that threaten genome integrity by replicative transposition in host gonads. The Piwi-interacting RNAs (piRNAs) pathway is assumed to maintain Drosophila genome homeostasis by downregulating transcriptional and post-transcriptional TE expression in the ovary. However, the bursts of transposition that are expected to follow transposome derepression after piRNA pathway impairment have not yet been reported. Here, we show, at a genome-wide level, that piRNA loss in the ovarian somatic cells boosts several families of the endogenous retroviral subclass of TEs, at various steps of their replication cycle, from somatic transcription to germinal genome invasion. For some of these TEs, the derepression caused by the loss of piRNAs is backed up

SUBMITTER: Barckmann B 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC6182186 | biostudies-literature | 2018 Oct

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature