- When: Tuesday, May 1, 12:15 PM
- Where: Room E6519, BSPH
MITOPLD Is a Mitochondrial Protein Essential for Nuage Formation and piRNA Biogenesis in the Mouse Germline.
Watanabe et al.
Dev Cell 20:364
piRNA-Associated Germline Nuage Formation and Spermatogenesis Require MitoPLD Profusogenic Mitochondrial-Surface Lipid Signaling.
Huang et al. [Frohman lab website]
Dev Cell 20:376.
Jenn's comments on her paper choices . . .
(with a little bold font, done by me for emphasis on keywords):
"These papers revolve around the conserved, membrane-less, electron-dense RNA-protein aggregates in germ cells known as germ granules or nuage. These structures have been found to be crucial for the production of piRNAs, small RNAs that are required for maintaining genome integrity in the germline. The mechanisms by which germ granules assemble in germ cells is not fully understood and is actively studied. It has been known for many years that they are associated with mitochondria, (one of the many names for this structure in mammals is "intermitochondrial cement," or IMC) but the functional significance of mitochondrial association is not known.
In this set of papers, the authors show that MITOPLD, a mitochondrial enzyme, is required for IMC assembly and function. In the absence of MITOPLD, male mice are sterile, with spermatocytes arrested in meiosis due to retrotransposon derepression. MITOPLD is the mitochondrial phospholipase D and generates phosphatidic acid, a signaling molecule. The authors propose that phosphatidic acid may act to signal IMC component assembly or activation. I picked these papers because they bring up the intriguing cell biology of interorganellar dynamics, with important consequences to the germ cells. Moreover, these papers are a good example of evolutionary conservation, as zucchini, the Drosophila ortholog of MITOPLD, also acts in piRNA biogenesis. Finally, germ granule assembly is close to the center of my heart (and at the center of my thesis work)."
No comments:
Post a Comment