scholarly journals Specialization of the Drosophila nuclear export family protein, Nxf3, for piRNA precursor export

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Emma Kneuss ◽  
Marzia Munafò ◽  
Evelyn L. Eastwood ◽  
Undine-Sophie Deumer ◽  
Jonathan B. Preall ◽  
...  

AbstractThe piRNA pathway is a conserved, small RNA-based immune system that protects animal germ cell genomes from the harmful effects of transposon mobilisation. In Drosophila ovaries, most piRNAs originate from dual-strand clusters, which generate piRNAs from both genomic strands. Dual-strand clusters use non-canonical transcription mechanisms. Although transcribed by RNA polymerase II, cluster transcripts lack splicing signatures and poly(A) tails. mRNA processing is important for general mRNA export mediated by Nuclear export factor 1. Although UAP56, a component of the transcription and export complex, has been implicated in piRNA precursor export, it remains unknown how dual-strand cluster transcripts are specifically targeted for piRNA biogenesis by export from the nucleus to cytoplasmic processing centers. Here we report that dual-strand cluster transcript export requires CG13741/Bootlegger and the Drosophila Nuclear export factor family protein, Nxf3. Bootlegger is specifically recruited to piRNA clusters and in turn brings Nxf3. We find that Nxf3 specifically binds to piRNA precursors and is essential for their export to piRNA biogenesis sites, a process that is critical for germline transposon silencing. Our data shed light on how dual-strand clusters compensate for a lack of canonical features of mature mRNAs to be specifically exported via Nxf3, ensuring proper piRNA production.

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mostafa F. ElMaghraby ◽  
Peter Refsing Andersen ◽  
Florian Pühringer ◽  
Katharina Meixner ◽  
Thomas Lendl ◽  
...  

PIWI-interacting RNAs (piRNAs) guide transposon silencing in animals. The 22-30nt piRNAs are processed in the cytoplasm from long non-coding RNAs. How piRNA precursors, which often lack RNA processing hallmarks of export-competent transcripts, achieve nuclear export is unknown. Here, we uncover the RNA export pathway specific for piRNA precursors in theDrosophilagermline. This pathway requires Nxf3-Nxt1, a variant of the hetero-dimeric mRNA export receptor Nxf1-Nxt1. Nxf3 interacts with UAP56, a nuclear RNA helicase essential for mRNA export, and CG13741/Bootlegger, which recruits Nxf3-Nxt1 and UAP56 to heterochromatic piRNA source loci. Upon RNA cargo binding, Nxf3 achieves nuclear export via the exportin Crm1, and accumulates together with Bootlegger in peri-nuclear nuage, suggesting that after export, Nxf3-Bootlegger delivers precursor transcripts to the piRNA processing sites. Our findings indicate that the piRNA pathway bypasses nuclear RNA surveillance systems to achieve export of heterochromatic, unprocessed transcripts to the cytoplasm, a strategy also exploited by retroviruses.


2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Marzia Munafò ◽  
Vera Manelli ◽  
Federica A. Falconio ◽  
Ashley Sawle ◽  
Emma Kneuss ◽  
...  

ABSTRACTThe piRNA pathway is a small RNA-based immune system that silences mobile genetic elements in animal germlines. piRNA biogenesis requires a specialised machinery that converts long single-stranded precursors into small RNAs of ~25-nucleotides in length. This process involves factors that operate in two different subcellular compartments: the nuage/Yb-body and mitochondria. How these two sites communicate to achieve accurate substrate selection and efficient processing remains unclear. Here, we investigate a previously uncharacterized piRNA biogenesis factor, Daedalus (Daed), that is located on the outer mitochondrial membrane. Daed is essential for Zucchini-mediated piRNA production and for the correct localisation of the indispensable piRNA biogenesis factor, Armitage (Armi). We find that Gasz and Daed interact with each other and likely provide a mitochondrial “anchoring platform” to ensure that Armi is held in place, proximal to Zucchini, during piRNA processing. Our data suggest that Armi initially identifies piRNA precursors in nuage/Yb-bodies in a manner that depends upon Piwi and then moves to mitochondria to present precursors to the mitochondrial biogenesis machinery. These results represent a significant step in understanding a critical aspect of transposon silencing, namely how RNAs are chosen to instruct the piRNA machinery in the nature of its silencing targets.


2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kang Zhao ◽  
Sha Cheng ◽  
Na Miao ◽  
Ping Xu ◽  
Xiaohua Lu ◽  
...  

AbstractThe repression of transposons by the Piwi-interacting RNA (piRNA) pathway is essential to protect animal germ cells. In Drosophila ovaries, Panoramix (Panx) enforces transcriptional silencing by binding to the target-engaged Piwi-piRNA complex, although the precise mechanisms by which this occurs remain elusive. Here, we show that Panx functions together with a germline specific paralogue of a nuclear export factor, dNxf2, and its cofactor dNxt1 (p15), as a ternary complex to suppress transposon expression. Structural and functional analyses demonstrate that dNxf2 binds Panx via its UBA domain, which plays an important role in transposon silencing. Unexpectedly, dNxf2 interacts directly with dNxf1 (TAP), a general nuclear export factor. As a result, dNxf2 prevents dNxf1 from binding to the FG repeats of the nuclear pore complex, a process required for proper RNA export. Transient tethering of dNxf2 to nascent transcripts leads to their nuclear retention. Therefore, we propose that dNxf2 may function as a Pandas (Panoramix-dNxf2 dependent TAP/p15 silencing) complex, which counteracts the canonical RNA exporting machinery and restricts transposons to the nuclear peripheries. Our findings may have broader implications for understanding how RNA metabolism modulates epigenetic gene silencing and heterochromatin formation.


eLife ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 9 ◽  
Author(s):  
Fanny Eyboulet ◽  
Célia Jeronimo ◽  
Jacques Côté ◽  
François Robert

Nuclear export of messenger RNAs (mRNAs) is intimately coupled to their synthesis. pre-mRNAs assemble into dynamic ribonucleoparticles as they are being transcribed, processed, and exported. The role of ubiquitylation in this process is increasingly recognized but, while a few E3 ligases have been shown to regulate nuclear export, evidence for deubiquitylases is currently lacking. Here we identified deubiquitylase Ubp15 as a regulator of nuclear export in Saccharomyces cerevisiae. Ubp15 interacts with both RNA polymerase II and the nuclear pore complex, and its deletion reverts the nuclear export defect of E3 ligase Rsp5 mutants. The deletion of UBP15 leads to hyper-ubiquitylation of the main nuclear export receptor Mex67 and affects its association with THO, a complex coupling transcription to mRNA processing and involved in the recruitment of mRNA export factors to nascent transcripts. Collectively, our data support a role for Ubp15 in coupling transcription to mRNA export.


2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Fanny Eyboulet ◽  
Célia Jeronimo ◽  
Jacques Côté ◽  
François Robert

ABSTRACTThe nuclear export of messenger RNAs (mRNAs) is intimately coupled to their synthesis. pre-mRNAs assemble into dynamic ribonucleoparticles as they are being transcribed, processed and exported. The role of ubiquitylation in this process is increasingly recognized as the ubiquitylation of many key players have been shown to affect mRNA nuclear export. While a few E3 ligases have been shown to regulate nuclear export, evidence for deubiquitylases is currently lacking. Here, we identified the deubiquitylase Ubp15 as a regulator of nuclear export in Saccharomyces cerevisiae. Ubp15 interacts both with RNA polymerase II and with the nuclear pore complex, and its deletion reverts the nuclear export defect of mutants of the E3 ligase Rsp5. The deletion of UBP15 leads to hyper-ubiquitylation of the main nuclear export receptor Mex67 and affects its association with THO, a complex coupling transcription to mRNA processing and involved in the recruitment of mRNA export factors to nascent transcripts. Collectively, our data support a role for Ubp15 in coupling transcription to mRNA export.


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Maxim Zagoskin ◽  
Jianbin Wang ◽  
Ashley T. Neff ◽  
Giovana M.B. Veronezi ◽  
Richard E. Davis

Small RNA pathways play diverse regulatory roles in the nematode C. elegans. However, our understanding of small RNA pathways, their conservation, and their roles in other nematodes is limited. Here, we analyzed small RNA pathways in the parasitic nematode Ascaris. Ascaris has ten Argonautes with five worm-specific Argonautes (WAGOs) that are associated with secondary 5'-triphosphate small RNAs (22-24G-RNAs). These Ascaris WAGOs and their small RNAs target repetitive sequences (WAGO-1, WAGO-2, WAGO-3, and NRDE-3) or mature mRNAs (CSR-1, NRDE-3, and WAGO-3) and are similar to the C. elegans mutator, nuclear, and CSR-1 small RNA pathways. Ascaris CSR-1 likely functions to "license" gene expression in the absence of an Ascaris piRNA pathway. Ascaris ALG-4 and its associated 26G-RNAs target and appear to repress specific mRNAs during meiosis in the testes. Notably, Ascaris WAGOs (WAGO-3 and NRDE-3) small RNAs change their targets between repetitive sequences and mRNAs during spermatogenesis or in early embryos illustrating target plasticity of these WAGOs. We provide a unique and comprehensive view of mRNA and small RNA expression throughout nematode spermatogenesis that illustrates the dynamics and flexibility of small RNA pathways. Overall, our study provides key insights into the conservation and divergence of nematode small RNA pathways.


2000 ◽  
Vol 20 (23) ◽  
pp. 8767-8782 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jin Ho Yoon ◽  
Dona C. Love ◽  
Anjan Guhathakurta ◽  
John A. Hanover ◽  
Ravi Dhar

ABSTRACT We identified the Schizosaccharomyces pombe mex67 gene (spmex67) as a multicopy suppressor of rae1-167 nup184-1 synthetic lethality and the rae1-167 tsmutation. spMex67p, a 596-amino-acid-long protein, has considerable sequence similarity to the Saccharomyces cerevisiae Mex67p (scMex67p) and human Tap. In contrast toscMEX67, spmex67 is essential for neither growth nor nuclear export of mRNA. However, an spmex67 null mutation (Δmex67) is synthetically lethal with therae1-167 mutation and accumulates poly(A)+ RNA in the nucleus. We identified a central region (149 to 505 amino acids) within spMex67p that associates with a complex containing Rae1p that complements growth and mRNA export defects of therae1-167 Δmex67 synthetic lethality. This region is devoid of RNA-binding, N-terminal nuclear localization, and the C-terminal nuclear pore complex-targeting regions. The (149–505)-green fluorescent protein (GFP) fusion is found diffused throughout the cell. Overexpression of spMex67p inhibits growth and mRNA export and results in the redistribution of the diffused localization of the (149–505)-GFP fusion to the nucleus and the nuclear periphery. These results suggest that spMex67p competes for essential mRNA export factor(s). Finally, we propose that the 149–505 region of spMex67p could act as an accessory factor in Rae1p-dependent transport and that spMex67p participates at various common steps with Rae1p export complexes in promoting the export of mRNA.


2007 ◽  
Vol 81 (2) ◽  
pp. 575-587 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jennifer L. Woo ◽  
Arnold J. Berk

ABSTRACT Theadenovirus type 5 (Ad5) E1B-55K and E4orf6 proteins are required together to stimulate viral late nuclear mRNA export to the cytoplasm and to restrict host cell nuclear mRNA export during the late phase of infection. Previous studies have shown that these two viral proteins interact with the cellular proteins elongins B and C, cullin 5, RBX1, and additional cellular proteins to form an E3 ubiquitin-protein ligase that polyubiquitinates p53 and probably one or more subunits of the MRE11-RAD50-NBS1 (MRN) complex, directing their proteasomal degradation. The MRN complex is required for cellular DNA double-strand break repair and induction of the DNA damage response by adenovirus infection. To determine if the ability of E1B-55K and E4orf6 to stimulate viral late mRNA nuclear export requires the ubiquitin-protein ligase activity of this viral ubiquitin-protein ligase complex, we designed and expressed a dominant-negative mutant form of cullin 5 in HeLa cells before infection with wild-type Ad5 or the E1B-55K null mutant dl1520. The dominant-negative cullin 5 protein stabilized p53 and the MRN complex, indicating that it inhibited the viral ubiquitin-protein ligase but had no effect on viral early mRNA synthesis, early protein synthesis, or viral DNA replication. However, expression of the dominant-negative cullin 5 protein caused a decrease in viral late protein synthesis and viral nuclear mRNA export similar to the phenotype produced by mutations in E1B-55K. We conclude that the stimulation of adenovirus late mRNA nuclear export by E1B-55K and E4orf6 results from the ubiquitin-protein ligase activity of the adenovirus ubiquitin-protein ligase complex.


2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Juan Manuel Iglesias-Pedraz ◽  
Diego Matia Fossatti Jara ◽  
Valeria Del Carmen Valle-Riestra Felice ◽  
Sergio Rafael Cruz Visalaya ◽  
Jose Antonio Ayala Felix ◽  
...  

Abstract Background The Werner syndrome protein (WRN) belongs to the RecQ family of helicases and its loss of function results in the premature aging disease Werner syndrome (WS). We previously demonstrated that an early cellular change induced by WRN depletion is a posttranscriptional decrease in the levels of enzymes involved in metabolic pathways that control macromolecular synthesis and protect from oxidative stress. This metabolic shift is tolerated by normal cells but causes mitochondria dysfunction and acute oxidative stress in rapidly growing cancer cells, thereby suppressing their proliferation.Results To identify the mechanism underlying this metabolic shift, we examined global protein synthesis and mRNA nucleocytoplasmic distribution after WRN knockdown. We determined that WRN depletion in HeLa cells attenuates global protein synthesis without affecting the level of key components of the mRNA export machinery. We further observed that WRN depletion affects the nuclear export of mRNAs and demonstrated that WRN directly interacts with mRNA and the mRNA export receptor Nuclear Export Factor 1 (NXF1).Conclusions Our findings suggest that WRN influences the export of mRNAs from the nucleus through its interaction with the NXF1 export receptor thereby affecting cellular proteostasis. In summary, we identified a new partner and a novel function of WRN, which is especially important for the proliferation of cancer cells.


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Adelheid Lempradl ◽  
Unn Kugelberg ◽  
Mary Iconomou ◽  
Ian Beddows ◽  
Daniel Nätt ◽  
...  

Preconception parental environment can reproducibly program offspring phenotype without altering the DNA sequence, yet the mechanisms underpinning this epigenetic inheritance remains elusive. Here, we demonstrate the existence of an intact piRNA-pathway in mature Drosophila sperm and show that pathway modulation alters offspring gene transcription in a sequence-specific manner. We map a dynamic small RNA content in developing sperm and find that the mature sperm carry a highly distinct small RNA cargo. By biochemical pulldown, we identify a small RNA subset bound directly to piwi protein. And, we show that piRNA-pathway controlled sperm small RNAs are linked to target gene repression in offspring. Critically, we find that full piRNA-pathway dosage is necessary for the intergenerational metabolic and transcriptional reprogramming events triggered by high paternal dietary sugar. These data provide a direct link between regulation of endogenous mature sperm small RNAs and transcriptional programming of complementary sequences in offspring. Thus, we identify a novel mediator of paternal intergenerational epigenetic inheritance.


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