RNAi pathways repress reprogramming of C. elegans germ cells during heat stress.

ABSTRACT: Repression of cellular reprogramming in germ cells is critical to maintaining cell fate and fertility. When germ cells mis-express somatic genes they can be directly converted into other cell types, resulting in loss of totipotency and reproductive potential. Identifying the molecular mechanisms that coordinate these cell fate decisions is an active area of investigation. Here we show that RNAi pathways play a key role in maintaining germline gene expression and totipotency after heat stress. By examining transcriptional changes that occur in mut-16 mutants, lacking a key protein in the RNAi pathway, at elevated temperature we found that genes normally expressed in the soma are mis-expressed in germ cells. Furthermore, these genes displayed increased chromatin accessibility in the germline

SUBMITTER: Rogers AK 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC7192617 | biostudies-literature | 2020 May

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature