Trilotma Sen / Biology / Faculty Mentor: Alicia Rogers
Gene regulation is necessary for maintaining coordination of molecular mechanisms during development to ensure proper fertility. Precise activation and silencing of genes within totipotent germ cells is crucial for gametogenesis. In C. elegans, RNA interference (RNAi) pathways restrict spermatogenesis during the L4 stage and permit the expression of oogenesis genes in the adult stage. Yet, it remains unclear how these developmental programs are robustly executed, particularly during stressful conditions. We leveraged mut-16 mutants, which exhibit sperm-based infertility at elevated temperature (25ºC), to examine how RNAi pathways protect sperm reproductive potential during stress. We found that sperm genes were developmentally mis coordinated in heat-stressed mut-16 mutant hermaphrodites. Bioinformatic analyses revealed the mis-regulated genes largely overlapped with ALG-3/4 pathway targets indicating that small RNA mediated regulation from the mutator complex is essential throughout development, despite ALG3/4 pathway being independent of the mutator complex for amplification of its downstream 22GRNAs. Further analysis revealed developmental mis-regulation of alg-3 and alg-4 gene expression in heat-stressed mut-16 mutants, correlating with changes in 22G-RNA and 26G-RNA levels at the alg-3 and alg-4 genomic loci. These discoveries suggest that small RNA pathways play a role in activating and deactivating the ALG-3/4 pathway at the proper developmental stages.
Leave a Reply