摘要
The mechanisms that specify and maintain the charac- teristics of germ cells during animal development are poorly understood. In this study, we demonstrated that loss of function of the zinc-finger gene Isy-2 results in various somatic cells adopting germ cells characteris- tics, including expression of germline-specific P gran- ules, enhanced RNAi activity and transgene silencing. The soma to germ transformation in Isy-2 mutants requires the activities of multiple chromatin remodeling complexes, including the MES-4 complex and the ISW-1 complex. The distinct germline-specific features in somatic cells and the gene expression profile indicate that LSY-2 acts in the Mec complex in this process. Our study demonstrated that Isy-2 functions in the mainte- nance of the soma-germ distinction.
The mechanisms that specify and maintain the charac- teristics of germ cells during animal development are poorly understood. In this study, we demonstrated that loss of function of the zinc-finger gene Isy-2 results in various somatic cells adopting germ cells characteris- tics, including expression of germline-specific P gran- ules, enhanced RNAi activity and transgene silencing. The soma to germ transformation in Isy-2 mutants requires the activities of multiple chromatin remodeling complexes, including the MES-4 complex and the ISW-1 complex. The distinct germline-specific features in somatic cells and the gene expression profile indicate that LSY-2 acts in the Mec complex in this process. Our study demonstrated that Isy-2 functions in the mainte- nance of the soma-germ distinction.
基金
We thank Dr. Bob Goldstein for gfp：：pgl-1 strain, Dr. Oliver Hobert for Isy-2（ot64） and Dr. Isabel Hanson for editing the manuscript. Some strains used in this work were received from the Caenorhabditis Genetics Center, which is supported by a grant from the NIH. This work was supported by the National Basic Research Program （973 Program） （Nos. 2013CB910100 and 2011CB910100） and the National Natural Science Foundation of China （Grant Nos. 31421002 and 31225018） to H.Z, The research of Hong Zhang was supported in part by an International Early Career Scientist grant from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute.
