Female germline expression of OVO transcription factor bridges Drosophila generations.

OVO is required for female germ cell viability but has no known function in the male germline in Drosophila. ovo is autoregulated by two antagonistic isoforms, OVO-A and OVO-B. All ovo- alleles were created as partial revertants of the antimorphic ovoD1 allele.

Diverse somatic Transformer and sex chromosome karyotype pathways regulate gene expression in Drosophila gonad development.

The somatic sex determination gene () is required for the highly sexually dimorphic development of most somatic cells, including those of the gonads. In addition, somatic is required for the germline development even though it is not required for sex determination within germ cells. Germ cell autonomous gene expression is also necessary for their sex determination.

OVO positively regulates essential maternal pathways by binding near the transcriptional start sites in the female germline.

Differentiation of female germline stem cells into a mature oocyte includes the expression of RNAs and proteins that drive early embryonic development in . We have little insight into what activates the expression of these maternal factors. One candidate is the zinc-finger protein OVO.

Muskelin acts as a substrate receptor of the highly regulated CTLH E3 ligase during the maternal-to-zygotic transition.

The maternal-to-zygotic transition (MZT) is a conserved developmental process where the maternally-derived protein and mRNA cache is replaced with newly made zygotic gene products. We have previously shown that in the deposited RNA-binding proteins ME31B, Cup, and Trailer Hitch (TRAL) are ubiquitylated by the CTLH E3 ligase and cleared. However, the organization and regulation of the CTLH complex remain poorly understood in flies.

Catalytic residues of microRNA Argonautes play a modest role in microRNA star strand destabilization in C. elegans.

Many microRNA (miRNA)-guided Argonaute proteins can cleave RNA ('slicing'), even though miRNA-mediated target repression is generally cleavage-independent. Here we use Caenorhabditis elegans to examine the role of catalytic residues of miRNA Argonautes in organismal development. In contrast to previous work, mutations in presumed catalytic residues did not interfere with development when introduced by CRISPR.