Home
Reference Report
| Reference | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Citation | Yin, H., Lin, H. (2007). An epigenetic activation role of Piwi and a Piwi-associated piRNA in Drosophila melanogaster. Nature 450(7167): 304--308. (Export to RIS) | ||
| FlyBase ID | FBrf0202885 | ||
| Publication Type | Research paper | ||
| PubMed ID | 17952056 | ||
| PubMed Abstract | Heterochromatin, representing the silenced state of transcription, consists largely of transposon-enriched and highly repetitive sequences. Implicated in heterochromatin formation and transcriptional silencing in Drosophila are Piwi (P-element induced wimpy testis) and repeat-associated small interfering RNAs (rasiRNAs). Despite this, the role of Piwi in rasiRNA expression and heterochromatic silencing remains unknown. Here we report the identification and characterization of 12,903 Piwi-interacting RNAs (piRNAs) in Drosophila, showing that rasiRNAs represent a subset of piRNAs. We also show that Piwi promotes euchromatic histone modifications and piRNA transcription in subtelomeric heterochromatin (also known as telomere-associated sequence, or TAS), on the right arm of chromosome 3 (3R-TAS). Piwi binds to 3R-TAS and a piRNA uniquely mapped to 3R-TAS (3R-TAS1 piRNA). In piwi mutants, 3R-TAS loses euchromatic histone modifications yet accumulates heterochromatic histone modifications and Heterochromatin Protein 1a (HP1a). Furthermore, the expression of both the 3R-TAS1 piRNA and a white reporter gene in 3R-TAS becomes suppressed. A P element inserted 128 base pairs downstream of the 3R-TAS1 piRNA coding sequence restores the euchromatic histone modifications of 3R-TAS and the expression of 3R-TAS1 piRNA in piwi mutants, as well as partly rescuing their defects in germline stem-cell maintenance. These observations suggest that Piwi promotes the euchromatic character of 3R-TAS heterochromatin and its transcriptional activity, opposite to the known roles of Piwi and the RNA-mediated interference pathway in epigenetic silencing. This activating function is probably achieved through interaction with at least 3R-TAS1 piRNA and is essential for germline stem-cell maintenance. | ||
| DOI | 10.1038/nature06263 | ||
| Related Publication(s) | |||
Recent Updates
|
|||
| Description |
What does this section display?
This section contains items that were added to this record for each release.
It currently only tracks new links between this FlyBase report and other
FlyBase data classes (e.g. genes, references, stocks) or controlled
vocabulary terms (e.g. GO, anatomy terms).
What does this section not display?
This section does not currently display links that were removed or gene model changes.
|
||
| Update Feed |
Click the icon below to subscribe to this FlyBase record and receive updates automatically through your
feed reader.
|
||
| FB2013_03 | |||
| FB2013_02 | |||
| All updates | Click here to see a list of all updates to this record from FB2010_08 and on. | ||
|
Associated Information
|
|||
| Comments | |||
| Associated Files | |||
|
Other Information
|
|||
| Secondary IDs | |||
| Language of Publication | English | ||
| Additional Languages of Abstract | |||
| Also Published As | |||
|
Parent Publication
|
|||
| Publication Type | Journal | ||
| Abbreviation | Nature | ||
| Title | Nature | ||
| Publication Year | 1869- | ||
| ISBN/ISSN | 0028-0836 | ||
|
Data from Reference
|
|||
| Alleles (3)
|
|||
| Constructs (1)
|
|||
| Genes (8)
|
|||
| Insertions (1)
|
|||
| Natural transposons (2)
|
|||