Project description:Transposable elements (TEs), whose propagation can result in severe damage to the host genome, are silenced in the animal gonad by Piwi-interacting RNAs (piRNAs). piRNAs produced in the ovaries are deposited in the embryonic germline and initiate TE repression in the germline progeny. Whether the maternally transmitted piRNAs play a role in the silencing of somatic TEs is, however, unknown. Here we show that maternally transmitted piRNAs from the tirant retrotransposon in Drosophila are required for the somatic silencing of the TE and correlate with an increase in histone H3K9 trimethylation an active tirant copy.
Project description:Small RNAs were deep sequenced from the liver and spleen of adult mice in an effort to identify somatic piRNAs. Following sequencing of all small RNAs, known non-coding RNAs were computationally removed from the dataset. The remaining RNAs were then mapped to the genome and analyzed for sequence characteristics (5' base, length) typical of known piRNAs. To determine if any of the identified small RNAs were MIWI2 dependent, we deep sequenced small RNAs from liver and spleen of MIWI2 KO mice and analyzed them as above.
Project description:In metazoan gonads, transposable elements (TEs) mobilization is limited by PIWI-interacting RNAs (piRNAs). These small RNAs originate from specific source loci, the piRNA clusters. piRNAs are known to silence TEs in the cells where they are produced. Endogenous retroviruses (ERVs), a subclass of TEs, pose a particular threat because they are capable of transiting from cell to cell. In this study, we reveal that piRNAs produced locally in germ cells counteract invasion by ERVs arriving from adjacent somatic cells. We reactivated the Drosophila ERV ZAM in somatic gonadal cells by deleting, using CRISPR-Cas9 genome editing, its single copy in the somatic flamenco piRNA cluster, while keeping the piRNA pathway fully functional. Upon reactivation, ZAM invaded the oocytes, resulting in transposition and severe fertility defects. We show that once ZAM-piRNAs are produced in germ cells they counter the invasion. Our study sheds new light on the mechanisms of recognition and regulation of invasive genetic elements, which is essential for the maintenance of genome integrity.
Project description:Transposable elements (TEs), whose propagation can result in severe damage to the host genome, are silenced in the animal gonad by Piwi-interacting RNAs (piRNAs). piRNAs produced in the ovaries are deposited in the embryonic germline and initiate TE repression in the germline progeny. Whether the maternally transmitted piRNAs play a role in the silencing of somatic TEs is, however, unknown. Here we show that maternally transmitted piRNAs from the tirant retrotransposon in Drosophila are required for the somatic silencing of the TE and correlate with an increase in histone H3K9 trimethylation an active tirant copy. Comparison of tirant piRNAs in two Drosophila simulans natural populations.
Project description:In metazoan gonads, transposable elements (TEs) mobilization is limited by PIWI-interacting RNAs (piRNAs). These small RNAs originate from specific source loci, the piRNA clusters. piRNAs are known to silence TEs in the cells where they are produced. Endogenous retroviruses (ERVs), a subclass of TEs, pose a particular threat because they are capable of transiting from cell to cell. In this study, we reveal that piRNAs produced locally in germ cells counteract invasion by ERVs arriving from adjacent somatic cells. We reactivated the Drosophila ERVZAMin somatic gonadal cells by deleting, using CRISPR-Cas9 genome editing, its single copy in the somaticflamencopiRNA cluster, while keeping the piRNA pathway fully functional. Upon reactivation,ZAMinvaded the oocytes, resulting in transposition and severe fertility defects. We show that onceZAM-piRNAs are produced in germ cells they counter the invasion. Our study sheds new light on the mechanisms of recognition and regulation of invasive genetic elements, which is essential for the maintenance of genome integrity.
Project description:In metazoan gonads, transposable elements (TEs) mobilization is limited by PIWI-interacting RNAs (piRNAs). These small RNAs originate from specific source loci, the piRNA clusters. piRNAs are known to silence TEs in the cells where they are produced. Endogenous retroviruses (ERVs), a subclass of TEs, pose a particular threat because they are capable of transiting from cell to cell. In this study, we reveal that piRNAs produced locally in germ cells counteract invasion by ERVs arriving from adjacent somatic cells. We reactivated the Drosophila ERV ZAM in somatic gonadal cells by deleting, using CRISPR-Cas9 genome editing, its single copy in the somatic flamenco piRNA cluster, while keeping the piRNA pathway fully functional. Upon reactivation, ZAM invaded the oocytes, resulting in transposition and severe fertility defects. We show that once ZAM-piRNAs are produced in germ cells they counter the invasion. Our study sheds new light on the mechanisms of recognition and regulation of invasive genetic elements, which is essential for the maintenance of genome integrity.
Project description:Small RNAs were deep sequenced from the liver and spleen of adult mice in an effort to identify somatic piRNAs. Following sequencing of all small RNAs, known non-coding RNAs were computationally removed from the dataset. The remaining RNAs were then mapped to the genome and analyzed for sequence characteristics (5' base, length) typical of known piRNAs. To determine if any of the identified small RNAs were MIWI2 dependent, we deep sequenced small RNAs from liver and spleen of MIWI2 KO mice and analyzed them as above. We deep sequenced small RNAs from the liver and spleen of one WT mouse and one MIWI2 knock-out mouse. We then trimmed sequencing adapters and removed known ncRNAs (rRNA, tRNA, snoRNA, snRNA, miRNA) from the dataset before aligning reads to the mm9 assembly of the mouse genome.
Project description:The piRNA pathway controls transposon expression in animal germ cells, thereby ensuring genome stability over generations. piRNAs are maternally deposited and required for proper transposon silencing in adult offspring. However, a long-standing question in the field is the precise function of maternally deposited piRNAs and its associated factors during embryogenesis. Here, we probe the spatio-temporal expression patterns of several piRNA pathway components during early stages of development. Amongst those, factors required for transcriptional gene silencing (TGS) showed ubiquitous abundance in somatic and pole cells throughout the first half of embryogenesis. We further analysed the transcriptomes of various embryo stages and correlated these with the presence of selected chromatin marks. We found that a number of transposon families show bursts of transcription during early embryonic stages. Transposons heavily targeted by maternally deposited piRNAs accumulated repressive chromatin marks following their spike in expression. Furthermore, depletion of maternally deposited Piwi protein in early embryos resulted in increased expression of transposons targeted by inherited piRNAs and was accompanied by a strong loss of repressive chromatin marks at coding sequences. Overall, our data suggests a pivotal role for the piRNA pathway in transposon defence during Drosophila embryogenesis in somatic cells.
Project description:Transposable elements are a serious threat for genome integrity and their control via small RNA mediated silencing pathways is an ancient strategy. The fruit fly Drosophila melanogaster has two silencing mechanisms that repress TEs expression: endogenous siRNAs (esiRNAs or endo-siRNAs) and Piwi-interacting small RNAs (piRNAs). The biogenesis of endo-siRNAs involves Loqs-PD, which acts predominantly during processing of dsRNA by Dcr-2, and R2D2 that primarily helps to direct siRNAs for loading into Ago2. We provide deep sequencing evidence consistent with the idea that R2D2 and Loqs-PD can function in part redundantly. Certain transposons display a preference for either dsRBD-protein for production or loading; this appeared to correlate neither with overall abundance, classification of the transposon or a specific site of genomic origin. The endo-siRNA biogenesis pathway in the germline operates according to the same principles as the existing model for the soma, and its impairment does not significantly affect piRNAs. Expanding the analysis, we confirmed the occurrence of somatic piRNA-like RNAs (pilRNAs) that show a ping-pong signature. We detected expression of the Piwi-family protein mRNAs only barely above background, indicating that the somatic pilRNAs may arise from a small sub-population of somatic cells that express a functional piRNA pathway.