Abstract
The ability to respond to stress is critical to survival for animals. While stress responses have been studied at both organismal and cellular levels, less attention has been given to the effect of stress on the germ line. Effective germ line adaptations to stress are essential to the propagation of a species. Recent studies suggest that germ cells share some cellular responses to stress with somatic cells, including the assembly of RNP granules, but may also have unique requirements. One fundamental difference between oocytes and sperm, as well as most somatic cells, is the long lifespan of oocytes. Since women are born with all of their eggs, oocytes must maintain their cellular quality over decades prior to fertilization. This prolonged meiotic arrest is one type of stress that eventually contributes to decreased fertility in older women. Germ cell responses to nutritional stress and heat stress have also been well-characterized using model systems. Here we review our current understanding of how germ cells respond to stress, with an emphasis on the dynamic assembly of RNP granules that may be adaptive. We compare and contrast stress responses of male gametes with those of female gametes, and discuss how the dynamic cellular remodeling of the germ line can impact the regulation of gene expression. We also discuss the implications of recent in vitro studies of ribonucleoprotein granule assembly on our understanding of germ line responses to stress, and the gaps that remain in our understanding of the function of RNP granules during stress.
Highlights
The ability to respond to stress is essential for the survival of a species
Chaperone proteins have been implicated in regulating RNP granule assembly in both somatic cells and in the germ line (Spiess et al, 2004; Tam et al, 2006; Curran et al, 2009; Updike and Strome, 2009; Nadler-Holly et al, 2012; Hubstenberger et al, 2013; Jain et al, 2016; Wood et al, 2016)
The role of single transcript RNPs in seeding stress-induced RNP granules is worth exploring based on Drosophila studies showing germ granule assembly is regulated by recruitment of single transcript RNPs to homotypic clusters (Nielpielko et al, 2018)
Summary
The ability to respond to stress is essential for the survival of a species. While stress responses have long been studied at a physiological level, major inroads into understanding cellular responses to stress have occurred more recently. One cellular stress response that can be protective for gametes is the assembly of stress-induced RNP granules. Stress-induced RNP granules have been described in vertebrate and invertebrate, and male and female, germ lines; their function remains largely unknown.
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