Abstract
The telomere is a nucleoprotein complex at the ends of linear chromosomes that protects them from fusion and degradation. The telomere consists of telomeric DNA, a protective protein complex and telomeric RNA. Biogenesis of telomeric transcripts in development is still far from being understood. Drosophila telomeres are elongated by a transposition of specialized telomeric retrotransposons that encode proteins. Using transgenic constructs encoding tagged telomeric protein, we found that transcripts of Drosophila telomeric element HeT-A bind Gag-HeT-A protein encoded by these transcripts. Maternal HeT-A transcripts and Gag-HeT-A form ribonucleoprotein granules around centrosomes, centers of microtubule organization, during blastoderm formation, upon disruption of telomere silencing during oogenesis. The specific localization of HeT-A RNA is dependent on microtubules since disruption of microtubules caused delocalization of HeT-A transcripts. This transgenic system is a valuable model for the study of telomeric RNA biogenesis.
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Abbreviations
- DAPI:
-
4′,6-diamidino-2-phenylindole
- FISH:
-
fluorescence in situ hybridization
- HA:
-
hemagglutinin
- piRNA:
-
Piwi interacting RNA
- RIP:
-
RNA-binding protein immunoprecipitation
- RNAi:
-
RNA interference
- RNP:
-
ribonucleoprotein
- TERRA:
-
telomeric repeat-containing RNA
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Original Russian Text © I. A. Olovnikov, V. V. Morgunova, A. A. Mironova, M. Y. Kordyukova, E. I. Radion, O. M. Olenkina, N. V. Akulenko, A. I. Kalmykova, 2016, published in Biokhimiya, 2016, Vol. 81, No. 9, pp. 1280-1287.
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Olovnikov, I.A., Morgunova, V.V., Mironova, A.A. et al. Interaction of telomeric retroelement HeT-A transcripts and their protein product gag in early embryogenesis of Drosophila . Biochemistry Moscow 81, 1023–1030 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1134/S000629791609011X
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1134/S000629791609011X