title: DCL2 is highly expressed in the egg cell in both rice and Arabidopsis.
abstract: Small RNAs are riboregulators that play critical roles in eukaryotic cells. They repress gene expression by acting either on DNA to guide sequence elimination and chromatin remodeling, or on RNA to guide cleavage and translation repression. Arabidopsis thaliana and Oryza sativa contain four and six DICER-LIKE (DCL) genes with specialized functions in small RNA biogenesis for RNA interference-related processes. We recently profiled genome-wide gene expression in egg and synergid cells in rice. In this article, we show that OsDCL2, OsDCL4, and OsHEN1 are preferentially expressed in the egg cell. In addition, we revealed that AtDCL2 is also preferentially expressed in the Arabidopsis egg cell. These findings suggest that small RNA pathways are activated in the egg cell in both rice and Arabidopsis. The activation of these pathways in the egg cell might be essential for egg cell maturation, fertilization, or embryogenesis.
authors.affiliation: The University of Tokyo, Tokyo, Japan.
authors.forename: Hideki
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Takanashi
authors.forename: Takayuki
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Ohnishi
authors.forename: Mirai
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Mogi
authors.forename: Yuto
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Hirata
authors.forename: Nobuhiro
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Tsutsumi
mesh_terms: D017360:Arabidopsis / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism*; D029681:Arabidopsis Proteins / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism*; D018797:Cell Cycle Proteins / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism*; D035264:Flowers / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism*; D018506:Gene Expression Regulation, Plant / Q000235:genetics / Q000502:physiology; D012275:Oryza / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism*; D010940:Plant Proteins / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism*; D034741:RNA, Small Interfering / Q000235:genetics; D043244:Ribonuclease III / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism*
chemical_list: D029681:Arabidopsis Proteins; D018797:Cell Cycle Proteins; D010940:Plant Proteins; D034741:RNA, Small Interfering; C504982:DCL4 protein, Arabidopsis; C511919:DCL2 protein, Arabidopsis; D043244:Ribonuclease III