Dimerisation of the PICTS complex via LC8/Cut-up drives co-transcriptional transposon silencing in Drosophila

In animal gonads, the PIWI-interacting RNA (piRNA) pathway guards genome integrity in part through the co-transcriptional gene silencing of transposon insertions. In ovaries, piRNA-loaded Piwi detects nascent transposon transcripts and instructs heterochromatin formation through the anoramix- nduced...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:eLife 2021-02, Vol.10
Main Authors: Eastwood, Evelyn L, Jara, Kayla A, Bornelöv, Susanne, Munafò, Marzia, Frantzis, Vasileios, Kneuss, Emma, Barbar, Elisar J, Czech, Benjamin, Hannon, Gregory J
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Animals
Chromatin
Chromosomes and Gene Expression
co-transcriptional silencing
dimerisation
DNA methylation
DNA Transposable Elements
Drosophila
Drosophila melanogaster - genetics
Drosophila melanogaster - metabolism
Drosophila Proteins - genetics
Drosophila Proteins - metabolism
Dynein
Dyneins - genetics
Dyneins - metabolism
Epigenetics
Gene Silencing
Genes
Genetic aspects
Genetic engineering
Genetic transcription
Genomes
Genomics
Gonads
Heterochromatin
Insects
LC8
Localization
Mammals
Ovaries
piRNA pathway
Proteins
RNA
RNA polymerase
transposon
Transposons
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Summary:In animal gonads, the PIWI-interacting RNA (piRNA) pathway guards genome integrity in part through the co-transcriptional gene silencing of transposon insertions. In ovaries, piRNA-loaded Piwi detects nascent transposon transcripts and instructs heterochromatin formation through the anoramix- nduced o- ranscriptional ilencing (PICTS) complex, containing Panoramix, Nxf2 and Nxt1. Here, we report that the highly conserved dynein light chain LC8/Cut-up (Ctp) is an essential component of the PICTS complex. Loss of Ctp results in transposon de-repression and a reduction in repressive chromatin marks specifically at transposon loci. In turn, Ctp can enforce transcriptional silencing when artificially recruited to RNA and DNA reporters. We show that Ctp drives dimerisation of the PICTS complex through its interaction with conserved motifs within Panoramix. Artificial dimerisation of Panoramix bypasses the necessity for its interaction with Ctp, demonstrating that conscription of a protein from a ubiquitous cellular machinery has fulfilled a fundamental requirement for a transposon silencing complex.
ISSN:2050-084X
2050-084X
DOI:10.7554/elife.65557