Pre-piRNA Trimming Safeguards PiRNAs Against Erroneous Targeting by RNA-dependent RNA Polymerase

Overview

Journal Cell Rep

Publisher Cell Press

Specialties Biology
Cell Biology
Molecular Biology

Date 2024 Jan 20

PMID 38244197

Authors

Benjamin Pastore

Hannah L Hertz

Wen Tang

Affiliations

Soon will be listed here.

Abstract

The Piwi/Piwi-interacting RNA (piRNA) pathway protects genome integrity in animal germ lines. Maturation of piRNAs involves nucleolytic processing at both 5' and 3' ends. The ribonuclease PARN-1 and its orthologs mediate piRNA 3' trimming in worms, insects, and mammals. However, the significance of this evolutionarily conserved processing step is not fully understood. Employing C. elegans as a model, we recently discovered that 3' trimming protects piRNAs against non-templated nucleotide additions and degradation. Here, we find that worms lacking PARN-1 accumulate an uncharacterized RNA species termed anti-piRNAs, which are antisense to piRNAs. Anti-piRNAs associate with Piwi proteins, are 17-19 nucleotides long, and begin with 5' guanine or adenine. Untrimmed pre-piRNAs are misdirected by the terminal nucleotidyltransferase RDE-3 and RNA-dependent RNA polymerase EGO-1, leading to the formation of anti-piRNAs. This work identifies a class of small RNAs in parn-1 mutants and provides insight into the activities of RDE-3, EGO-1, and Piwi proteins.

Citing Articles

An AT-hook transcription factor promotes transcription of histone, spliced-leader, and piRNA clusters.

Wang Y, Hertz H, Pastore B, Tang W Nucleic Acids Res. 2025; 53(4).

PMID: 39945323 PMC: 11822377. DOI: 10.1093/nar/gkaf079.

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