Taming active transposons at Drosophila telomeres: The interconnection between HipHop's roles in capping and transcriptional silencing.

ABSTRACT: Drosophila chromosomes are elongated by retrotransposon attachment, a process poorly understood. Here we characterized a mutation affecting the HipHop telomere-capping protein. In mutant ovaries and the embryos that they produce, telomere retrotransposons are activated and transposon RNP accumulates. Genetic results are consistent with that this hiphop mutation weakens the efficacy of HP1-mediated silencing while leaving piRNA-based mechanisms largely intact. Remarkably, mutant females display normal fecundity suggesting that telomere de-silencing is compatible with germline development. Moreover, unlike prior mutants with overactive telomeres, the hiphop stock does not over-accumulate transposons for hundreds of generations. This is likely due to the loss of HipHop's abilities both to sil

SUBMITTER: Cui M 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC8651111 | biostudies-literature | 2021 Nov

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature