Jankovics Ferenc, Henn László, Bujna Ágnes, Vilmos Péter, Spirohn Kerstin, Boutros Michael, Erdélyi Miklós
Institute of Genetics, Biological Research Centre of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences, Szeged, Hungary.
German Cancer Research Center (DKFZ) and Heidelberg University, Division Signaling and Functional Genomics, Heidelberg, Germany.
PLoS One. 2014 Jun 4;9(6):e98579. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0098579. eCollection 2014.
In Drosophila melanogaster, primordial germ cells are specified at the posterior pole of the very early embryo. This process is regulated by the posterior localized germ plasm that contains a large number of RNAs of maternal origin. Transcription in the primordial germ cells is actively down-regulated until germ cell fate is established. Bulk expression of the zygotic genes commences concomitantly with the degradation of the maternal transcripts. Thus, during embryogenesis, maternally provided and zygotically transcribed mRNAs determine germ cell development collectively. In an effort to identify novel genes involved in the regulation of germ cell behavior, we carried out a large-scale RNAi screen targeting both maternal and zygotic components of the embryonic germ line transcriptome. We identified 48 genes necessary for distinct stages in germ cell development. We found pebble and fascetto to be essential for germ cell migration and germ cell division, respectively. Our data uncover a previously unanticipated role of mei-P26 in maintenance of embryonic germ cell fate. We also performed systematic co-RNAi experiments, through which we found a low rate of functional redundancy among homologous gene pairs. As our data indicate a high degree of evolutionary conservation in genetic regulation of germ cell development, they are likely to provide valuable insights into the biology of the germ line in general.
在黑腹果蝇中，原始生殖细胞在极早期胚胎的后极被指定。这个过程由后定位的生殖质调控，生殖质包含大量母源RNA。原始生殖细胞中的转录被积极下调，直到生殖细胞命运确立。合子基因的大量表达与母源转录本的降解同时开始。因此，在胚胎发生过程中，母源提供的和合子转录的mRNA共同决定生殖细胞的发育。为了鉴定参与调控生殖细胞行为的新基因，我们针对胚胎生殖系转录组的母源和合子成分进行了大规模RNA干扰筛选。我们鉴定出48个在生殖细胞发育不同阶段所必需的基因。我们发现pebble和fascetto分别对生殖细胞迁移和生殖细胞分裂至关重要。我们的数据揭示了mei-P26在维持胚胎生殖细胞命运方面以前未被预料到的作用。我们还进行了系统的共RNA干扰实验，通过这些实验我们发现同源基因对之间功能冗余率较低。由于我们的数据表明在生殖细胞发育的遗传调控中存在高度的进化保守性，它们很可能为一般生殖系生物学提供有价值的见解。
