Interaction of Telomeric Retroelement HeT-A Transcripts and Their Protein Product Gag in Early Embryogenesis of Drosophila.
The telomere is a nucleoprotein complex at the ends of linear chromosomes that protects them from fusion and degradation. The telomere consists of telomeric DNA, a protective protein complex and telomeric RNA. Biogenesis of telomeric transcripts in development is still far from being understood. Drosophila telomeres are elongated by a transposition of specialized telomeric retrotransposons that encode proteins. Using transgenic constructs encoding tagged telomeric protein, we found that transcripts of Drosophila telomeric element HeT-A bind Gag-HeT-A protein encoded by these transcripts. Maternal HeT-A transcripts and Gag-HeT-A form ribonucleoprotein granules around centrosomes, centers of microtubule organization, during blastoderm formation, upon disruption of telomere silencing during oogenesis. The specific localization of HeT-A RNA is dependent on microtubules since disruption of microtubules caused delocalization of HeT-A transcripts. This transgenic system is a valuable model for the study of telomeric RNA biogenesis.
Institute of Molecular Genetics, Russian Academy of Sciences, Moscow, 123182, Russia. allakalm@img.ras.ru.
I A
IA
Olovnikov
V V
VV
Morgunova
A A
AA
Mironova
M Y
MY
Kordyukova
E I
EI
Radion
O M
OM
Olenkina
N V
NV
Akulenko
A I
AI
Kalmykova
D000818:Animals; D018385:Centrosome / Q000378:metabolism*; D029721:Drosophila Proteins / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism*; D004331:Drosophila melanogaster; D004625:Embryo, Nonmammalian / Q000378:metabolism*; D047108:Embryonic Development / Q000502:physiology*; D005260:Female; D015683:Gene Products, gag / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism*; D018626:Retroelements / Q000502:physiology*; D016615:Telomere / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism*
D029721:Drosophila Proteins; D015683:Gene Products, gag; C103996:HeT-A-gag protein, Drosophila; D018626:Retroelements