Van Rompay Liesbeth, Borghgraef Charline, Beets Isabel, Caers Jelle, Temmerman Liesbet
Functional Genomics and Proteomics, Department of Biology, KU Leuven, Naamsestraat 59 bus 2465, 3000 Leuven, Belgium.
Sci Rep. 2015 Nov 10;5:16381. doi: 10.1038/srep16381.
Vitellogenesis or maternal yolk formation is considered critical to the reproduction of egg-laying animals. In invertebrates, however, most of its regulatory genes are still unknown. Via a combined mapping and whole-genome sequencing strategy, we performed a forward genetic screen to isolate novel regulators of yolk production in the nematode model system Caenorhabditis elegans. In addition to isolating new alleles of rab-35, rab-10 and M04F3.2, we identified five mutant alleles corresponding to three novel regulatory genes potently suppressing the expression of a GFP-based yolk reporter. We confirmed that mutations in vrp-1, ceh-60 and lrp-2 disrupt endogenous yolk protein synthesis at the transcriptional and translational level. In contrast to current beliefs, our discovered set of mutants with strongly reduced yolk proteins did not show serious reproduction defects. This raises questions as to whether yolk proteins per se are needed for ultimate reproductive success.
卵黄生成或母体卵黄形成被认为对产卵动物的繁殖至关重要。然而,在无脊椎动物中,其大多数调控基因仍然未知。通过联合定位和全基因组测序策略,我们在秀丽隐杆线虫这一线虫模型系统中进行了正向遗传筛选,以分离卵黄产生的新型调控因子。除了分离出rab - 35、rab - 10和M04F3.2的新等位基因外,我们还鉴定出五个对应于三个新型调控基因的突变等位基因,它们能有效抑制基于绿色荧光蛋白的卵黄报告基因的表达。我们证实,vrp - 1、ceh - 60和lrp - 2中的突变在转录和翻译水平上破坏了内源性卵黄蛋白的合成。与当前观点相反,我们发现的一组卵黄蛋白大量减少的突变体并未表现出严重的繁殖缺陷。这就引发了关于卵黄蛋白本身对于最终繁殖成功是否必要的问题。