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Maternal Nanos‐Dependent RNA Stabilization in the Primordial Germ Cells of Drosophila Embryos
Author(s) -
Sugimori Seiko,
Kumata Yuji,
Kobayashi Satoru
Publication year - 2018
Publication title -
development, growth and differentiation
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.864
H-Index - 66
eISSN - 1440-169X
pISSN - 0012-1592
DOI - 10.1111/dgd.12414
Subject(s) - biology , germline , untranslated region , messenger rna , three prime untranslated region , translation (biology) , rna binding protein , embryo , germ cell , rna , microbiology and biotechnology , somatic cell , genetics , gene
Nanos (Nos) is an evolutionary conserved protein expressed in the germline of various animal species. In Drosophila , maternal Nos protein is essential for germline development. In the germline progenitors, or the primordial germ cells ( PGC s), Nos binds to the 3′ UTR of target mRNA s to repress their translation. In contrast to this prevailing role of Nos, here we report that the 3′ UTR of CG 32425 mRNA mediates Nos‐dependent RNA stabilization in PGC s. We found that the level of mRNA expressed from a reporter gene fused to the CG 32425 3′ UTR was significantly reduced in PGC s lacking maternal Nos ( nos PGC s) as compared with normal PGC s. By deleting the CG 32425 3′ UTR , we identified the region required for mRNA stabilization, which includes Nos‐binding sites. In normal embryos, CG 32425 mRNA was maternally supplied into PGC s and remained in this cell type during embryogenesis. However, as expected from our reporter assay, the levels of CG 32425 mRNA and its protein product expressed in nos PGC s were lower than in normal PGC s. Thus, we propose that Nos protein has dual functions in translational repression and stabilization of specific RNA s to ensure proper germline development.