Faculty Collaboration Database

Functional analysis of microRNA pathway genes in the somatic gonad and germ cells during ovulation in C. elegans. Dev Biol 2017 Jun 01;426(1):115-125

Date

05/04/2017

Pubmed ID

28461238

Pubmed Central ID

PMC5716346

DOI

10.1016/j.ydbio.2017.04.007

Scopus ID

2-s2.0-85018985364 (requires institutional sign-in at Scopus site)   17 Citations

Abstract

MicroRNAs (miRNAs) are post-transcriptional regulators of gene expression that play critical roles in animal development and physiology, though functions for most miRNAs remain unknown. Worms with reduced miRNA biogenesis due to loss of Drosha or Pasha/DGCR8 activity are sterile and fail to ovulate, indicating that miRNAs are required for the process of oocyte maturation and ovulation. Starting with this penetrant sterile phenotype and using new strains created to perform tissue specific RNAi, we characterized the roles of the C. elegans Pasha, pash-1, and two miRNA-specific Argonautes, alg-1 and alg-2, in somatic gonad cells and in germ cells in the regulation of ovulation. Conditional loss of pash-1 activity resulted in a reduced rate of ovulation and in basal and ovulatory sheath contractions. Similarly, knockdown of miRNA-specific Argonautes in the cells of the somatic gonad by tissue-specific RNAi results in a reduction of the ovulation rate and in basal and ovulatory sheath contractions. Reduced miRNA pathway gene activity resulted in a range of defects, including oocytes that were pinched upon entry of the oocyte into the distal end of the spermatheca in about 42% of the ovulation events observed following alg-1 RNAi. This phenotype was not observed on worms exposed to control RNAi. In contrast, knockdown of alg-1 and alg-2 in germ cells results in few defects in oocyte maturation and ovulation. These data identify specific steps in the process of ovulation that require miRNA pathway gene activity in the somatic gonad cells.

Author List

Rios C, Warren D, Olson B, Abbott AL

Author

Allison Abbott PhD Associate Professor in the Biology department at Marquette University

MESH terms used to index this publication - Major topics in bold

Animals
Argonaute Proteins
Caenorhabditis elegans
Caenorhabditis elegans Proteins
Cell Differentiation
Germ Cells
Gonads
MicroRNAs
Ovulation
RNA Interference
RNA, Small Interfering
RNA-Binding Proteins
Ribonuclease III