Seminars and Events

Past Events

Category Seminar
Date and Time 2010-12-21 15:30 - 16:30
Venue Seminar Room A7F
Speaker Toshie Kai
Affiliation Temasek Lifesciences laboratory, Singapore
Title Nuage: birth and beyond of germline piRNA
Poster click here to download(PDF)
Host Akira Nakamura
Summary The most important cell lineage for the survival of sexually reproducing metazoans is the germline, due to its unique role in gamete production and species continuity. The fidelity of genomic information in the germline has to be tightly regulated for accurate transmission to the next generation. In many animal germline cells, Piwi-interacting RNAs (piRNAs) are reported to silence the expression of one class of mobile genetic elements, retroelements, whose transposition may afflict the genome with mutational burden.

We and others have proposed that nuage , a well-conserved perinuclear organelle found in germline cells, may be the sites where germline piRNAs are amplified in a feed-forward loop, called ping-pong cycle. I will introduce our recent findings supporting this model. Proteins required for biogenesis of piRNAs, including Piwi-subfamily proteins, Aubergine and Argonoute3, assemble at perinuclear region as a large complex to produce germline piRNAs. We have reported some nuage components which contribute this process, and they show interesting genetic interaction. We are also working on spatiotemporal regulation of nuage function during spermatogenesis and during mitosis. Our detailed analysis on Vas revealed an unexpected role of Vas and piRNA pathway for mitotic chromosome condensation in Drosophila germline cells. I will also touch on dynamics of nuage components in male germline cells and their potential function in nuclear silencing.
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