The N-terminal extension of Arabidopsis ARGONAUTE 1 is essential for microRNA activities

microRNAs (miRNAs) regulate target gene expression through their ARGONAUTE (AGO) effector protein, mainly AGO1 in Arabidopsis thaliana. In addition to the highly conserved N, PAZ, MID and PIWI domains with known roles in RNA silencing, AGO1 contains a long, unstructured N-terminal extension (NTE) of...

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Published in:PLoS genetics 2023-03, Vol.19 (3), p.e1010450
Main Authors: Xu, Ye, Zhang, Yong, Li, Zhenfang, Soloria, Alyssa K, Potter, Savannah, Chen, Xuemei
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Analysis
Arabidopsis
Arabidopsis - genetics
Arabidopsis - metabolism
Arabidopsis Proteins - metabolism
Arabidopsis thaliana
Argonaute Proteins - genetics
Argonaute Proteins - metabolism
Biology and life sciences
Biosynthesis
Control
Gene expression
Genes
Genomes
Health aspects
Identification and classification
Lethality
Localization
Microbial mutation
MicroRNA
MicroRNAs
MicroRNAs - genetics
MicroRNAs - metabolism
miRNA
Morphology
Mutation
Phylogenetics
Proteins
Research and Analysis Methods
RNA Interference
RNA polymerase
RNA, Small Interfering - genetics
RNA-mediated interference
Seedlings
siRNA
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Summary:microRNAs (miRNAs) regulate target gene expression through their ARGONAUTE (AGO) effector protein, mainly AGO1 in Arabidopsis thaliana. In addition to the highly conserved N, PAZ, MID and PIWI domains with known roles in RNA silencing, AGO1 contains a long, unstructured N-terminal extension (NTE) of little-known function. Here, we show that the NTE is indispensable for the functions of Arabidopsis AGO1, as a lack of the NTE leads to seedling lethality. Within the NTE, the region containing amino acids (a.a.) 91 to 189 is essential for rescuing an ago1 null mutant. Through global analyses of small RNAs, AGO1-associated small RNAs, and miRNA target gene expression, we show that the region containing a.a. 91-189 is required for the loading of miRNAs into AGO1. Moreover, we show that reduced nuclear partitioning of AGO1 did not affect its profiles of miRNA and ta-siRNA association. Furthermore, we show that the 1-to-90a.a. and 91-to-189a.a. regions of the NTE redundantly promote the activities of AGO1 in the biogenesis of trans-acting siRNAs. Together, we report novel roles of the NTE of Arabidopsis AGO1.
ISSN:1553-7404
1553-7390
1553-7404
DOI:10.1371/journal.pgen.1010450