PIE-1 is a bifunctional protein that regulates maternal and zygotic gene expression in the embryonic germ line of Caenorhabditis elegans
Year: 2001
Type: preprint
Abstract: The CCCH zinc finger protein PIE-1 is an essential regulator of germ cell fate that segregates with the germ lineage during the first cleavages of the Caenorhabditis elegans embryo. We have shown previously that one function of PIE-1 is to inhibit mRNA transcription. Here we show that PIE-1 has a second function in germ cells; it is required for efficient expression of the maternally encoded Nanos homolog NOS-2. This second function is genetically separable from PIE-1's inhibitory effect on transcription. A mutation in PIE-1's second CCCH finger reduces NOS-2 expression without affecting transcriptional repression and causes primordial germ cells to stray away from the somatic gonad, occasionally exiting the embryo entirely. Our results indicate that PIE-1 promotes germ cell fate by two independent mechanisms as follows: (1) inhibition of transcription, which blocks zygotic programs that drive somatic development, and (2) activation of protein expression from nos-2 and possibly other maternal RNAs, which promotes primordial germ cell development.
Source: Genes & Development
DOI: 10.1101/gad.876201
Institutions: Johns Hopkins University, Johns Hopkins Medicine
Language: English
Subfield: Molecular Biology
Domain: Life Sciences
Open Access status: green
Award: G8381117992
OpenAlex ID: W2134450913