A Transgenerational Process Defines piRNA Biogenesis in Drosophila virilis
Abstract
Piwi-interacting (pi)RNAs repress diverse transposable elements in germ cells of Metazoa and are essential for fertility in both invertebrates and vertebrates. The precursors of piRNAs are transcribed from distinct genomic regions, the so-called piRNA clusters; however, how piRNA clusters are differentiated from the rest of the genome is not known. To address this question, we studied piRNA biogenesis in two D. virilis strains that show differential ability to generate piRNAs from several genomic regions. We found that active piRNA biogenesis correlates with high levels of histone 3 lysine 9 trimethylation (H3K9me3) over genomic regions that give rise to piRNAs. Furthermore, piRNA biogenesis in the progeny requires the transgenerational inheritance of an epigenetic signal, presumably in the form of homologous piRNAs that are generated in the maternal germline and deposited into the oocyte. The inherited piRNAs enhance piRNA biogenesis through the installment of H3K9me3 on piRNA clusters.
Additional Information
© 2014 The Authors. This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0/). Received: April 6, 2014. Revised: May 22, 2014. Accepted: August 6, 2014. Published: September 4, 2014. We thank Katalin Fejes Toth and members of the Aravin lab for discussion. This work was supported by grants from the NIH (R01 GM097363 and DP2 OD007371A) and by the Damon Runyon-Rachleff, the Searle Scholar, and the Packard Fellowship Awards to A.A.A.Attached Files
Published - 1-s2.0-S2211124714006767-main.pdf
Accepted Version - nihms623129.pdf
Supplemental Material - mmc1.pdf
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Additional details
- Alternative title
- A trans-generational process defines piRNA biogenesis in Drosophila virilis
- PMCID
- PMC5054749
- Eprint ID
- 49643
- Resolver ID
- CaltechAUTHORS:20140912-091626291
- NIH
- R01 GM097363
- NIH
- DP2 OD007371A
- Damon Runyon-Rachleff Award
- Searle Scholars Program
- David and Lucile Packard Foundation
- Created
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2014-09-12Created from EPrint's datestamp field
- Updated
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2021-11-10Created from EPrint's last_modified field