title: Piwi induces piRNA-guided transcriptional silencing and establishment of a repressive chromatin state.
abstract: In the metazoan germline, piwi proteins and associated piwi-interacting RNAs (piRNAs) provide a defense system against the expression of transposable elements. In the cytoplasm, piRNA sequences guide piwi complexes to destroy complementary transposon transcripts by endonucleolytic cleavage. However, some piwi family members are nuclear, raising the possibility of alternative pathways for piRNA-mediated regulation of gene expression. We found that Drosophila Piwi is recruited to chromatin, colocalizing with RNA polymerase II (Pol II) on polytene chromosomes. Knockdown of Piwi in the germline increases expression of transposable elements that are targeted by piRNAs, whereas protein-coding genes remain largely unaffected. Derepression of transposons upon Piwi depletion correlates with increased occupancy of Pol II on their promoters. Expression of piRNAs that target a reporter construct results in a decrease in Pol II occupancy and an increase in repressive H3K9me3 marks and heterochromatin protein 1 (HP1) on the reporter locus. Our results indicate that Piwi identifies targets complementary to the associated piRNA and induces transcriptional repression by establishing a repressive chromatin state when correct targets are found.
authors: California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, California 91125, USA.
authors: Adrien
authors: A
authors: Le Thomas
authors: Alicia K
authors: AK
authors: Rogers
authors: Alexandre
authors: A
authors: Webster
authors: Georgi K
authors: GK
authors: Marinov
authors: Susan E
authors: SE
authors: Liao
authors: Edward M
authors: EM
authors: Perkins
authors: Junho K
authors: JK
authors: Hur
authors: Alexei A
authors: AA
authors: Aravin
authors: Katalin Fejes
authors: KF
authors: Tóth
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D060565:Argonaute Proteins / Q000378:metabolism*; D002467:Cell Nucleus / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism; D002843:Chromatin / Q000378:metabolism*; D029721:Drosophila Proteins / Q000378:metabolism*; D004331:Drosophila melanogaster / Q000235:genetics* / Q000378:metabolism*; D005260:Female; D020868:Gene Silencing; D059007:Polytene Chromosomes / Q000378:metabolism; D034741:RNA, Small Interfering / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism*
chemical_list: D060565:Argonaute Proteins; D002843:Chromatin; D029721:Drosophila Proteins; D034741:RNA, Small Interfering; C116498:piwi protein, Drosophila
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