TY - JOUR
T1 - Gatekeepers for Piwi-piRNA complexes to enter the nucleus
AU - Ishizu, Hirotsugu
AU - Nagao, Akihiro
AU - Siomi, Haruhiko
N1 - Funding Information:
We thank Mikiko Siomi, Kuniaki Saito and other members of the Siomi laboratory for comments on the manuscript. This work was supported by MEXT (Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science, and Technology of Japan) grants to HS. HI is supported by the JSPS (Japan Society for the Promotion of Science).
PY - 2011/8
Y1 - 2011/8
N2 - RNA silencing pathways are now recognized to participate in essential cellular functions ranging from the regulation of mRNA turnover to the suppression of the activity of potentially deleterious transposable elements (TEs). Piwi-interacting RNAs (piRNAs) are germline-specific, small silencing RNAs that suppress TE activity and maintain genome integrity during germline development. In Drosophila ovarian somatic cells, piRNAs are processed from long single-stranded RNAs by a Dicer-independent pathway and are loaded onto Piwi in the cytoplasm. The Piwi-piRNA complexes are then transported into the nucleus to exert TE silencing. This mechanism involves gatekeepers for a functional Piwi-piRNA complex to be imported, which parallels with the Tetrahymena Twi1p-scan RNA pathway used to carry out the programmed DNA elimination.
AB - RNA silencing pathways are now recognized to participate in essential cellular functions ranging from the regulation of mRNA turnover to the suppression of the activity of potentially deleterious transposable elements (TEs). Piwi-interacting RNAs (piRNAs) are germline-specific, small silencing RNAs that suppress TE activity and maintain genome integrity during germline development. In Drosophila ovarian somatic cells, piRNAs are processed from long single-stranded RNAs by a Dicer-independent pathway and are loaded onto Piwi in the cytoplasm. The Piwi-piRNA complexes are then transported into the nucleus to exert TE silencing. This mechanism involves gatekeepers for a functional Piwi-piRNA complex to be imported, which parallels with the Tetrahymena Twi1p-scan RNA pathway used to carry out the programmed DNA elimination.
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U2 - 10.1016/j.gde.2011.05.001
DO - 10.1016/j.gde.2011.05.001
M3 - Review article
C2 - 21764576
AN - SCOPUS:79960924791
SN - 0959-437X
VL - 21
SP - 484
EP - 490
JO - Current Opinion in Genetics and Development
JF - Current Opinion in Genetics and Development
IS - 4
ER -