Unistrand piRNA clusters are an evolutionarily conserved mechanism to suppress endogenous retroviruses across the Drosophila genus
Preprint
Abstract
SUMMARY: The PIWI-interacting RNA (piRNA) pathway prevents endogenous genomic parasites, transposable elements, from damaging the genetic material of animal gonadal cells. Specific regions in the genome, called piRNA clusters, are thought to define each species’ piRNA repertoire and therefore its capacity to recognize and silence specific transposon families. The unistrand cluster flamenco ( flam ) is essential in the somatic compartment of the Drosophila ovary to restrict Gypsy -family transposons from infecting the neighbouring germ cells. Disruption of flam results in transposon derepression and sterility, yet it remains unknown whether this silencing mechanism is present more widely. Here, we systematically characterised 119 Drosophila species and identify five additional flam -like clusters separated by up to 45 million years. Small RNA-sequencing validated these as bona-fide unistrand piRNA clusters expressed in somatic cells of the ovary, where they selectively target transposons of the Gypsy family. Together, our study provides compelling evidence of a widely conserved transposon silencing mechanism that co-evolved with virus-like Gypsy -family transposons.Keywords
All Related Versions
- Published version: Nature Communications, 14 (1), 1.
This publication has 85 references indexed in Scilit:
- proTRAC - a software for probabilistic piRNA cluster detection, visualization and analysisBMC Bioinformatics, 2012
- The Cutoff protein regulates piRNA cluster expression and piRNA production in the Drosophila germlineThe EMBO Journal, 2011
- The Yb Body, a Major Site for Piwi-associated RNA Biogenesis and a Gateway for Piwi Expression and Transport to the Nucleus in Somatic CellsJournal of Biological Chemistry, 2011
- Adaptive seeds tame genomic sequence comparisonGenome Research, 2011
- BEDTools: a flexible suite of utilities for comparing genomic featuresBioinformatics, 2010
- The Drosophila HP1 Homolog Rhino Is Required for Transposon Silencing and piRNA Production by Dual-Strand ClustersCell, 2009
- Fast and accurate short read alignment with Burrows–Wheeler transformBioinformatics, 2009
- Specialized piRNA Pathways Act in Germline and Somatic Tissues of the Drosophila OvaryCell, 2009
- Small RNAs as Guardians of the GenomeCell, 2009
- Gypsy endogenous retrovirus maintains potential infectivity in several species of DrosophilidsBMC Ecology and Evolution, 2008