Abstract
Partitioning of mRNAs into ribonucleoprotein (RNP) granules supports diverse regulatory programs within the crowded cytoplasm. At least two types of RNP granules populate the germ plasm, a cytoplasmic domain at the posterior of the Drosophila oocyte and embryo. Germ granules deliver mRNAs required for germline development to pole cells, the germ cell progenitors. A second type of RNP granule, here named founder granules, contains oskar mRNA, which encodes the germ plasm organizer. Whereas oskar mRNA is essential for germ plasm assembly during oogenesis, we show that it is toxic to pole cells. Founder granules mediate compartmentalized degradation of oskar during embryogenesis to minimize its inheritance by pole cells. Degradation of oskar in founder granules is temporally and mechanistically distinct from degradation of oskar and other mRNAs during the maternal-to-zygotic transition. Our results show how compartmentalization in RNP granules differentially controls fates of mRNAs localized within the same cytoplasmic domain.
Highlights
The earliest stages of animal development generally occur in the absence of transcription
Discussion mRNAs that accumulate in the Drosophila germ plasm during oogenesis are partitioned into at least two types of RNPs, germ granules and founder granules
Germ granules contain mRNAs necessary for germline development and promote the inheritance of these mRNAs by pole cells
Summary
The earliest stages of animal development generally occur in the absence of transcription. Post-transcriptional control can be coordinated through the partitioning of mRNAs into ribonucleoprotein (RNP) granules These non-membrane bound bodies serve to compartmentalize regulatory events within the cytoplasm, such as sequestration of translationally repressed mRNAs in stress granules and P bodies (Guzikowski et al, 2019). RNP granules can promote colocalization and co-regulation of mRNAs that function in the same biological process and the segregation of different mRNAs with conflicting regulatory needs (Buchan, 2014). Such roles in colocalization and segregation are exemplified by granules in the Drosophila germ plasm
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