Project description:Piwi Argonautes and Piwi-interacting RNAs (piRNAs) mediate genome defense by targeting transposons. However, many piRNA species lack obvious sequence complementarity to transposons or other loci. For example, only one C. elegans transposon is a known piRNA target. Here we show that, in mutants lacking the Piwi Argonaute PRG-1 and associated piRNAs (21U-RNAs), many silent loci in the germline exhibit increased levels of mRNA expression and depletion of an amplified RNAdependent RNA polymerase (RdRP)-derived species of small RNA termed 22G-RNAs. Sequences depleted of 22G-RNAs are enriched nearby potential target sites that base pair imperfectly but extensively to 21U-RNAs. We show that PRG-1 is required to initiate, but not to maintain, silencing of transgenes engineered to contain complementarity to endogenous 21U-RNAs. Our findings support a model in which C. elegans piRNAs utilize their enormous repertoire of targeting capacity to scan the germline transcriptome for foreign sequences, while endogenous germline-expressed genes are actively protected from piRNA-induced silencing. Examine small RNA population changes in prg-1 and rescued strains
Project description:Proper regulation of the germline transcriptome is essential for the maintenance of fertility and survival of a species. In C. elegans, germline transcriptome homeostasis hinges on a complex repertoire of small RNA pathways that act in both activating and silencing capacities. Our understanding of how fundamental RNA processing steps intersect with these small RNA machineries in the germline remains relatively limited. Here, we link the conserved intron binding protein and splicing factor, EMB-4/AQR/IBP160 to two key 22G-RNA pathways in the C. elegans germline. EMB-4 associates with the Argonautes CSR-1 and HRDE-1, and is enriched at the genomic loci of CSR-1 and HRDE-1 target genes. Loss of emb-4 leads to distinct alterations in CSR-1 vs. HRDE-1 small RNA and mRNA transcriptomes. Our transcriptome-wide analysis shows that EMB-4 is enriched along pre-mRNAs of nearly 10,000 transcripts. For a subset of these genes, including mostly CSR-1 pathway targets, EMB-4 enriches for intronic, but not exonic, sequences. Together these data point to EMB-4 as a factor that may help to distinguish the targets of these two germline small RNA pathways.
Project description:Piwi Argonautes and Piwi-interacting RNAs (piRNAs) mediate genome defense by targeting transposons. However, many piRNA species lack obvious sequence complementarity to transposons or other loci. For example, only one C. elegans transposon is a known piRNA target. Here we show that, in mutants lacking the Piwi Argonaute PRG-1 and associated piRNAs (21U-RNAs), many silent loci in the germline exhibit increased levels of mRNA expression and depletion of an amplified RNAdependent RNA polymerase (RdRP)-derived species of small RNA termed 22G-RNAs. Sequences depleted of 22G-RNAs are enriched nearby potential target sites that base pair imperfectly but extensively to 21U-RNAs. We show that PRG-1 is required to initiate, but not to maintain, silencing of transgenes engineered to contain complementarity to endogenous 21U-RNAs. Our findings support a model in which C. elegans piRNAs utilize their enormous repertoire of targeting capacity to scan the germline transcriptome for foreign sequences, while endogenous germline-expressed genes are actively protected from piRNA-induced silencing.
Project description:Epigenetic modifications that arise during plant and animal development, such as DNA and histone modification, are mostly reset during gamete formation, but some are inherited from the germline including those marking imprinted genes. Small RNAs guide these epigenetic modifications, and some are also inherited by the next generation. In C. elegans, inherited small RNA precursors have poly (UG) tails, but how inherited small RNAs are distinguished in other animals and plants is unknown. Pseudouridine (Ψ) is the most abundant RNA modification but has not been explored in small RNAs. Here, we develop novel assays to detect Ψ in short RNA sequences, demonstrating its presence in mouse and Arabidopsis microRNAs and their precursors. We also detect substantial enrichment in germline small RNAs, namely epigenetically activated siRNAs (easiRNAs) in Arabidopsis pollen, and piwi-interacting piRNAs in mouse testis. In pollen, pseudouridylated easiRNAs are localized to sperm cells, and we found that PAUSED/HEN5 (PSD), the plant homolog of Exportin-t, interacts genetically with Ψ and is required for transport of easiRNAs into sperm cells from the vegetative nucleus. We further show that Exportin-t is required for the triploid block: chromosome dosage-dependent seed lethality that is epigenetically inherited from pollen. Thus, Ψ has a conserved role in marking inherited small RNAs in the germline.
Project description:Gene silencing mediated by dsRNA (RNAi) can persist for multiple generations in C. elegans (termed RNAi inheritance). Here we describe the results of a forward genetic screen in C. elegans that has identified six factors required for RNAi inheritance: GLH-1/VASA, PUP-1/CDE-1, MORC-1, SET-32, and two novel nematode-specific factors that we term here (heritable RNAi defective) HRDE-2 and HRDE-4. The new RNAi inheritance factors exhibit mortal germline (Mrt) phenotypes, which we show is likely caused by epigenetic deregulation in germ cells. We also show that HRDE-2 contributes to RNAi inheritance by facilitating the binding of small RNAs to the inheritance Argonaute (Ago) HRDE-1. Together, our results identify additional components of the RNAi inheritance machinery whose sequence conservation provides insights into the molecular mechanism of RNAi inheritance, further our understanding of how the RNAi inheritance machinery promotes germline immortality, and show that HRDE-2 couples the inheritance Ago HRDE-1 with the small RNAs it needs to direct RNAi inheritance and germline immortality.
Project description:To explore the roles of piRNAs and WAGO-class 22G-RNAs in regulating gene expression and transposon silencing in Caenorhabditis elegans, we used RNA-seq to assess changes in small RNA and mRNA levels in prg-1 and mut-16 mutants, which disable the piRNA and WAGO-class 22G-RNA pathways respectively. We identified numerous roles for piRNAs and WAGO-class 22G-RNAs in regulating germline genes, including transposons, histones, and spermatogenic and oogenic transcripts.
Project description:The poly-U specific endoribonuclease ENDU-2 plays an important role in maintaining germline immortality in C. elegans. The endu-2 loss-of function mutants display a mortal germline phenotype at 20°C but not at 15°C. At 25°C, the mortal germline phenotype is enhanced. In addition, an extrachromosomal endu-2::EGFP transgene rescues the mutant phenotype. In order to investigate the role of ENDU-2 on mRNA abundancy, a microarray analysis was performed via comparing young adults of endu-2(tm4977) loss of function mutant and endu-2(tm4977);Ex[endu-2::EGFP] rescue strain grown up at 25°C. As ENDU-2 affects maternal inheritance, grouped animals for comparison were derived from one grandmother (endu-2(tm4977);Ex[endu-2::EGFP]) to ensure the same maternal inheritance at the parental generation.
Project description:Multiple division cycles without growth are a characteristic feature of early embryogenesis. The female germline deposits proteins and RNAs into oocytes to support these divisions, which lack many of the quality control mechanisms operating in somatic cells undergoing growth. How the composition of the oocyte maternal load is regulated to ensure its ability to support early embryogenesis is not known. Here we describe a small RNA-Argonaute pathway, operating in the C. elegans germline, that ensures early embryonic divisions by employing catalytic slicing activity to broadly tune, instead of silence, germline gene expression. Misregulation of one target, a kinesin-13 microtubule depolymerase, underlies a major embryonic phenotype associated with pathway loss. Tuning of target expression is guided by small RNA density, which must ultimately be related to target sequence. Thus, C. elegans employs a single catalytic Argonaute for small RNA-mediated tuning of the mRNA levels of germline-expressed genes that support early embryogenesis. mRNA profiling of 2 replicates each for 3 genotypes of adult-stage C. elegans worms