title: Translational Control of Germ Cell Decisions.
abstract: Germline poses unique challenges to gene expression control at the transcriptional level. While the embryonic germline maintains a global hold on new mRNA transcription, the female adult germline produces transcripts that are not translated into proteins until embryogenesis of subsequent generation. As a consequence, translational control plays a central role in governing various germ cell decisions including the formation of primordial germ cells, self-renewal/differentiation decisions in the adult germline, onset of gametogenesis and oocyte maturation. Mechanistically, several common themes such as asymmetric localization of mRNAs, conserved RNA-binding proteins that control translation by 3' UTR binding, translational activation by the cytoplasmic elongation of the polyA tail and the assembly of mRNA-protein complexes called mRNPs have emerged from the studies on Caenorhabditis elegans, Xenopus and Drosophila. How mRNPs assemble, what influences their dynamics, and how a particular 3' UTR-binding protein turns on the translation of certain mRNAs while turning off other mRNAs at the same time and space are key challenges for future work.
authors.affiliation: Regional Centre for Biotechnology, Faridabad, Haryana, India.
authors.forename: Kumari
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Pushpa
authors.affiliation: Indian Institute of Technology-Kanpur, Kanpur, India.|Indian Institute of Technology-Madras, Chennai, India.
authors.forename: Ganga Anil
authors.initials: GA
authors.lastname: Kumar
authors.affiliation: Indian Institute of Technology-Madras, Chennai, India. subbu@iitm.ac.in.
authors.forename: Kuppuswamy
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Subramaniam
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D005260:Female; D005786:Gene Expression Regulation / Q000235:genetics*; D005854:Germ Cells / Q000502:physiology*; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D014176:Protein Biosynthesis / Q000235:genetics*