Clément Carré, Caroline Jacquier, Anne-Laure Bougé, Fabrice de Chaumont, Corinne Besnard-Guerin, Hélène Thomassin, Josette Pidoux, Bruno Da Silva, Eleftheria Chalatsi, Sarah Zahra, Jean-Christophe Olivo-Marin, Hélène Munier-Lehmann, and Christophe Antoniewski. 2013. “
AutomiG, a biosensor to detect alterations in miRNA biogenesis and in small RNA silencing guided by perfect target complementarity.” PLoS One, 8, 9, Pp. e74296.
AbstractDefects in miRNA biogenesis or activity are associated to development abnormalities and diseases. In Drosophila, miRNAs are predominantly loaded in Argonaute-1, which they guide for silencing of target RNAs. The miRNA pathway overlaps the RNAi pathway in this organism, as miRNAs may also associate with Argonaute-2, the mediator of RNAi. We set up a gene construct in which a single inducible promoter directs the expression of the GFP protein as well as two miRNAs perfectly matching the GFP sequences. We show that self-silencing of the resulting automiG gene requires Drosha, Pasha, Dicer-1, Dicer-2 and Argonaute-2 loaded with the anti-GFP miRNAs. In contrast, self-silencing of the automiG gene does not involve Argonaute-1. Thus, automiG reports in vivo for both miRNA biogenesis and Ago-2 mediated silencing, providing a powerful biosensor to identify situations where miRNA or siRNA pathways are impaired. As a proof of concept, we used automiG as a biosensor to screen a chemical library and identified 29 molecules that strongly inhibit miRNA silencing, out of which 5 also inhibit RNAi triggered by long double-stranded RNA. Finally, the automiG sensor is also self-silenced by the anti-GFP miRNAs in HeLa cells and might be easily used to identify factors involved in miRNA biogenesis and silencing guided by perfect target complementarity in mammals.
2013_PLOS One_Carre.pdf Supplemental Files.zip Felix Muerdter, Paloma M Guzzardo, Jesse Gillis, Yicheng Luo, Yang Yu, Caifu Chen, Richard Fekete, and Gregory J Hannon. 2013. “
A genome-wide RNAi screen draws a genetic framework for transposon control and primary piRNA biogenesis in Drosophila.” Mol Cell, 50, 5, Pp. 736-48.
AbstractA large fraction of our genome consists of mobile genetic elements. Governing transposons in germ cells is critically important, and failure to do so compromises genome integrity, leading to sterility. In animals, the piRNA pathway is the key to transposon constraint, yet the precise molecular details of how piRNAs are formed and how the pathway represses mobile elements remain poorly understood. In an effort to identify general requirements for transposon control and components of the piRNA pathway, we carried out a genome-wide RNAi screen in Drosophila ovarian somatic sheet cells. We identified and validated 87 genes necessary for transposon silencing. Among these were several piRNA biogenesis factors. We also found CG3893 (asterix) to be essential for transposon silencing, most likely by contributing to the effector step of transcriptional repression. Asterix loss leads to decreases in H3K9me3 marks on certain transposons but has no effect on piRNA levels.
2013_Mol Cell_Muerdter.pdf Supplemental Files.zip