Dimerisation of the PICTS complex via LC8/Cut-up drives co-transcriptional transposon silencing in <i>Drosophila</i>.

ABSTRACT: In animal gonads, the PIWI-interacting RNA (piRNA) pathway guards genome integrity in part through the co-transcriptional gene silencing of transposon insertions. In Drosophila ovaries, piRNA-loaded Piwi detects nascent transposon transcripts and instructs heterochromatin formation through the Panoramix-induced co-transcriptional silencing (PICTS) complex, containing Panoramix, Nxf2 and Nxt1. Here, we report that the highly conserved dynein light chain LC8/Cut-up (Ctp) is an essential component of the PICTS complex. Loss of Ctp results in transposon de-repression and a reduction in repressive chromatin marks specifically at transposon loci. In turn, Ctp can enforce transcriptional silencing when artificially recruited to RNA and DNA reporters. We s

SUBMITTER: Eastwood EL 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC7861614 | biostudies-literature | 2021 Feb

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature