title: Critical roles for Dicer in the female germline.
abstract: Dicer is an essential component of RNA interference (RNAi) pathways, which have broad functions in gene regulation and genome organization. Probing the consequences of tissue-restricted Dicer loss in mice indicates a critical role for Dicer during meiosis in the female germline. Mouse oocytes lacking Dicer arrest in meiosis I with multiple disorganized spindles and severe chromosome congression defects. Oogenesis and early development are times of significant post-transcriptional regulation, with controlled mRNA storage, translation, and degradation. Our results suggest that Dicer is essential for turnover of a substantial subset of maternal transcripts that are normally lost during oocyte maturation. Furthermore, we find evidence that transposon-derived sequence elements may contribute to the metabolism of maternal transcripts through a Dicer-dependent pathway. Our studies identify Dicer as central to a regulatory network that controls oocyte gene expression programs and that promotes genomic integrity in a cell type notoriously susceptible to aneuploidy.
authors: Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory, Watson School of Biological Sciences and Howard Hughes Medical Institute, Cold Spring Harbor, New York 11724, USA.
authors: Elizabeth P
authors: EP
authors: Murchison
authors: Paula
authors: P
authors: Stein
authors: Zhenyu
authors: Z
authors: Xuan
authors: Hua
authors: H
authors: Pan
authors: Michael Q
authors: MQ
authors: Zhang
authors: Richard M
authors: RM
authors: Schultz
authors: Gregory J
authors: GJ
authors: Hannon
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D001483:Base Sequence; D002869:Chromosome Aberrations; D017931:DNA Primers / Q000235:genetics; D004251:DNA Transposable Elements / Q000235:genetics; D047108:Embryonic Development; D005260:Female; D008297:Male; D008540:Meiosis; D051379:Mice; D018345:Mice, Knockout; D008822:Mice, Transgenic; D035683:MicroRNAs / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism; D009865:Oocytes / Q000166:cytology / Q000201:enzymology* / Q000254:growth & development; D009866:Oogenesis; D011247:Pregnancy; D034622:RNA Interference; D043244:Ribonuclease III / Q000172:deficiency / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism*; D014158:Transcription, Genetic
chemical_list: D017931:DNA Primers; D004251:DNA Transposable Elements; D035683:MicroRNAs; D043244:Ribonuclease III