Department of Biological Sciences, Inha University, Incheon, 22212, South Korea.
Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, Virginia Commonwealth University, Richmond, VA, 23298, USA.
Nat Commun. 2021 Nov 26;12(1):6925. doi: 10.1038/s41467-021-26945-x.
All females adopt an evolutionary conserved reproduction strategy; under unfavorable conditions such as scarcity of food or mates, oocytes remain quiescent. However, the signals to maintain oocyte quiescence are largely unknown. Here, we report that in four different species - Caenorhabditis elegans, Caenorhabditis remanei, Drosophila melanogaster, and Danio rerio - octopamine and norepinephrine play an essential role in maintaining oocyte quiescence. In the absence of mates, the oocytes of Caenorhabditis mutants lacking octopamine signaling fail to remain quiescent, but continue to divide and become polyploid. Upon starvation, the egg chambers of D. melanogaster mutants lacking octopamine signaling fail to remain at the previtellogenic stage, but grow to full-grown egg chambers. Upon starvation, D. rerio lacking norepinephrine fails to maintain a quiescent primordial follicle and activates an excessive number of primordial follicles. Our study reveals an evolutionarily conserved function of the noradrenergic signal in maintaining quiescent oocytes.
所有雌性动物都采用一种进化上保守的生殖策略；在食物或配偶稀缺等不利条件下，卵母细胞保持静止。然而，维持卵母细胞静止的信号在很大程度上是未知的。在这里，我们报告在四个不同的物种 - 秀丽隐杆线虫、雷氏大腹园蛛、黑腹果蝇和斑马鱼 - 中，章鱼胺和去甲肾上腺素在维持卵母细胞静止中起着至关重要的作用。在没有配偶的情况下，缺乏章鱼胺信号的秀丽隐杆线虫突变体的卵母细胞无法保持静止，而是继续分裂并变成多倍体。在饥饿时，缺乏章鱼胺信号的黑腹果蝇突变体的卵囊中无法保持在卵黄前期阶段，而是生长为成熟的卵囊中。在饥饿时，缺乏去甲肾上腺素的斑马鱼无法维持静止的原始卵泡，并激活过多的原始卵泡。我们的研究揭示了去甲肾上腺素信号在维持静止卵母细胞中的进化上保守功能。
