Germline inherited small RNAs facilitate the clearance of untranslated maternal mRNAs in C. elegans embryos.

Nat Commun

Institut Pasteur, Mechanisms of Epigenetic Inheritance, Department of Developmental and Stem Cell Biology, UMR3738, CNRS, 75724, Paris, France.

Published: March 2021

Inheritance and clearance of maternal mRNAs are two of the most critical events required for animal early embryonic development. However, the mechanisms regulating this process are still largely unknown. Here, we show that together with maternal mRNAs, C. elegans embryos inherit a complementary pool of small non-coding RNAs that facilitate the cleavage and removal of hundreds of maternal mRNAs. These antisense small RNAs are loaded into the maternal catalytically-active Argonaute CSR-1 and cleave complementary mRNAs no longer engaged in translation in somatic blastomeres. Induced depletion of CSR-1 specifically during embryonic development leads to embryonic lethality in a slicer-dependent manner and impairs the degradation of CSR-1 embryonic mRNA targets. Given the conservation of Argonaute catalytic activity, we propose that a similar mechanism operates to clear maternal mRNAs during the maternal-to-zygotic transition across species.

Download full-text PDF

Source
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7933186PMC
http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/s41467-021-21691-6DOI Listing

Publication Analysis

Top Keywords

maternal mrnas
20
small rnas
8
rnas facilitate
8
mrnas elegans
8
elegans embryos
8
embryonic development
8
csr-1 embryonic
8
maternal
6
mrnas
6
germline inherited
4

Similar Publications

Hsa_circ_0002005 aggravates osteosarcoma by increasing cell proliferation, migration, and invasion.

Gene

January 2025

Department of Orthopedics, The Second Affiliated Hospital of Guangxi Medical University, No. 166 East University Road, Nanning 530005, Guangxi, PR China. Electronic address:

Emerging evidence suggests that circular RNAs (circRNAs), a class of non-coding RNAs, play a critical role in the progression of several cancers, including osteosarcoma (OS). In this study, we focused on a specific circRNA, hsa_circ_0002005, derived from the mesoderm-induced early response 1 family member 2 (MIER2) gene. We determined the expression levels of hsa_circ_0002005 in OS samples through the use of real-time quantitative polymerase chain reaction (RT-qPCR).

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

MARTRE family proteins negatively regulate CCR4-NOT activity to protect poly(A) tail length and promote translation of maternal mRNA.

Nat Commun

January 2025

Key Laboratory of Epigenetic Regulation and Intervention, Institute of Biophysics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, 100101, China.

Article Synopsis
  • The study focuses on the role of a newly discovered protein family called MARTRE in regulating the poly(A) tail length of maternal mRNA during early embryo development in mice.
  • MARTRE proteins inhibit the deadenylase CCR4-NOT, helping to maintain longer poly(A) tails and enhance mRNA translation efficiency.
  • Deleting the Martre genes leads to shortened poly(A) tails, reduced mRNA translation, and delays in early embryonic development, emphasizing the importance of MARTRE in the translation of maternal mRNA.
View Article and Find Full Text PDF

mRNA decay pre-complex assembly drives timely cell-state transitions during differentiation.

Cell Rep

December 2024

Life Sciences Institute, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI 48109, USA; Department of Cell and Developmental Biology, University of Michigan Medical School, Ann Arbor, MI 48109, USA; Division of Genetic Medicine, Department of Internal Medicine and Rogel Cancer Center, University of Michigan Medical School, Ann Arbor, MI 48109, USA. Electronic address:

Complexes that control mRNA stability and translation promote timely cell-state transitions during differentiation by ensuring appropriate expression patterns of key developmental regulators. The Drosophila RNA-binding protein brain tumor (Brat) promotes the degradation of target transcripts during the maternal-to-zygotic transition in syncytial embryos and uncommitted intermediate neural progenitors (immature INPs). We identify ubiquitin-specific protease 5 (Usp5) as a candidate Brat interactor essential for the degradation of Brat target mRNAs.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

The cis-regulatory elements encoded in an mRNA determine its stability and translational output. While there has been a considerable effort to understand the factors driving mRNA stability, the regulatory frameworks governing translational control remain more elusive. We have developed a novel massively parallel reporter assay (MPRA) to measure mRNA translation, named Nascent Peptide Translating Ribosome Affinity Purification (NaP-TRAP).

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Upregulated YTHDC1 mediates trophoblastic dysfunction inducing preterm birth in ART conceptions through enhanced RPL37 translation.

Cell Mol Life Sci

December 2024

The International Peace Maternity and Child Health Hospital, School of Medicine, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, 910# Hengshan Road, Shanghai, China.

Assisted reproductive technology (ART) pregnancies present a higher risk of singleton preterm birth than natural pregnancies, but the underlying molecular mechanism remains largely unknown. RNA mA modification is a key epigenetic mechanism regulating cellular function, but the role of mA modification, especially its "reader" YTHDC1, in preterm delivery remains undefined. To delineate the role and epigenetic mechanism of mA modification in ART preterm delivery, the effects of YTHDC1 on trophoblastic function were evaluated by CCK-8, EdU, Transwell, and flow cytometry analyses post its overexpression or knockdown.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Want AI Summaries of new PubMed Abstracts delivered to your In-box?

Enter search terms and have AI summaries delivered each week - change queries or unsubscribe any time!