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Bombyx mori histone methyltransferase BmAsh2 is essential for silkworm piRNA-mediated sex determination
Sex determination is a hierarchically-regulated process with high diversity in different organisms including insects. The W chromosome-derived Fem piRNA has been identified as the primary sex determination factor in the lepidopteran insect, Bombyx mori, revealing a distinctive piRNA-mediated sex det...
Autores principales: | , , , , , |
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Formato: | Online Artículo Texto |
Lenguaje: | English |
Publicado: |
Public Library of Science
2018
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Materias: | |
Acceso en línea: | https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5841826/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/29474354 http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pgen.1007245 |
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author | Li, Zhiqian You, Lang Yan, Dong James, Anthony A. Huang, Yongping Tan, Anjiang |
author_facet | Li, Zhiqian You, Lang Yan, Dong James, Anthony A. Huang, Yongping Tan, Anjiang |
author_sort | Li, Zhiqian |
collection | PubMed |
description | Sex determination is a hierarchically-regulated process with high diversity in different organisms including insects. The W chromosome-derived Fem piRNA has been identified as the primary sex determination factor in the lepidopteran insect, Bombyx mori, revealing a distinctive piRNA-mediated sex determination pathway. However, the comprehensive mechanism of silkworm sex determination is still poorly understood. We show here that the silkworm PIWI protein BmSiwi, but not BmAgo3, is essential for silkworm sex determination. CRISPR/Cas9-mediated depletion of BmSiwi results in developmental arrest in oogenesis and partial female sexual reversal, while BmAgo3 depletion only affects oogenesis. We identify three histone methyltransferases (HMTs) that are significantly down-regulated in BmSiwi mutant moths. Disruption one of these, BmAsh2, causes dysregulation of piRNAs and transposable elements (TEs), supporting a role for it in the piRNA signaling pathway. More importantly, we find that BmAsh2 mutagenesis results in oogenesis arrest and partial female-to-male sexual reversal as well as dysregulation of the sex determination genes, Bmdsx and BmMasc. Mutagenesis of other two HMTs, BmSETD2 and BmEggless, does not affect piRNA-mediated sex determination. Histological analysis and immunoprecipitation results support a functional interaction between the BmAsh2 and BmSiwi proteins. Our data provide the first evidence that the HMT, BmAsh2, plays key roles in silkworm piRNA-mediated sex determination. |
format | Online Article Text |
id | pubmed-5841826 |
institution | National Center for Biotechnology Information |
language | English |
publishDate | 2018 |
publisher | Public Library of Science |
record_format | MEDLINE/PubMed |
spelling | pubmed-58418262018-03-23 Bombyx mori histone methyltransferase BmAsh2 is essential for silkworm piRNA-mediated sex determination Li, Zhiqian You, Lang Yan, Dong James, Anthony A. Huang, Yongping Tan, Anjiang PLoS Genet Research Article Sex determination is a hierarchically-regulated process with high diversity in different organisms including insects. The W chromosome-derived Fem piRNA has been identified as the primary sex determination factor in the lepidopteran insect, Bombyx mori, revealing a distinctive piRNA-mediated sex determination pathway. However, the comprehensive mechanism of silkworm sex determination is still poorly understood. We show here that the silkworm PIWI protein BmSiwi, but not BmAgo3, is essential for silkworm sex determination. CRISPR/Cas9-mediated depletion of BmSiwi results in developmental arrest in oogenesis and partial female sexual reversal, while BmAgo3 depletion only affects oogenesis. We identify three histone methyltransferases (HMTs) that are significantly down-regulated in BmSiwi mutant moths. Disruption one of these, BmAsh2, causes dysregulation of piRNAs and transposable elements (TEs), supporting a role for it in the piRNA signaling pathway. More importantly, we find that BmAsh2 mutagenesis results in oogenesis arrest and partial female-to-male sexual reversal as well as dysregulation of the sex determination genes, Bmdsx and BmMasc. Mutagenesis of other two HMTs, BmSETD2 and BmEggless, does not affect piRNA-mediated sex determination. Histological analysis and immunoprecipitation results support a functional interaction between the BmAsh2 and BmSiwi proteins. Our data provide the first evidence that the HMT, BmAsh2, plays key roles in silkworm piRNA-mediated sex determination. Public Library of Science 2018-02-23 /pmc/articles/PMC5841826/ /pubmed/29474354 http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pgen.1007245 Text en © 2018 Li et al http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) , which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited. |
spellingShingle | Research Article Li, Zhiqian You, Lang Yan, Dong James, Anthony A. Huang, Yongping Tan, Anjiang Bombyx mori histone methyltransferase BmAsh2 is essential for silkworm piRNA-mediated sex determination |
title | Bombyx mori histone methyltransferase BmAsh2 is essential for silkworm piRNA-mediated sex determination |
title_full | Bombyx mori histone methyltransferase BmAsh2 is essential for silkworm piRNA-mediated sex determination |
title_fullStr | Bombyx mori histone methyltransferase BmAsh2 is essential for silkworm piRNA-mediated sex determination |
title_full_unstemmed | Bombyx mori histone methyltransferase BmAsh2 is essential for silkworm piRNA-mediated sex determination |
title_short | Bombyx mori histone methyltransferase BmAsh2 is essential for silkworm piRNA-mediated sex determination |
title_sort | bombyx mori histone methyltransferase bmash2 is essential for silkworm pirna-mediated sex determination |
topic | Research Article |
url | https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5841826/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/29474354 http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pgen.1007245 |
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