Paramutation-like Epigenetic Conversion by piRNA at the Telomere of Drosophila virilis.

First discovered in maize, paramutation is a phenomenon in which one allele can trigger an epigenetic conversion of an alternate allele. This conversion causes a genetically heterozygous individual to transmit alleles that are functionally the same, in apparent violation of Mendelian segregation. Studies over the past several decades have revealed a strong connection between mechanisms of genome defense against transposable elements by small RNA and the phenomenon of paramutation. For example, a system of paramutation in Drosophila melanogaster has been shown to be mediated by piRNAs, whose primary function is to silence transposable elements in the germline. In this paper, we characterize a second system of piRNA-mediated paramutation-like behavior at the telomere of Drosophila virilis. In Drosophila, telomeres are maintained by arrays of retrotransposons that are regulated by piRNAs. As a result, the telomere and sub-telomeric regions of the chromosome have unique regulatory and chromatin properties. Previous studies have shown that maternally deposited piRNAs derived from a sub-telomeric piRNA cluster can silence the sub-telomeric center divider gene of Drosophila virilis in trans. In this paper, we show that this silencing can also be maintained in the absence of the original silencing allele in a subsequent generation. The precise mechanism of this paramutation-like behavior may be explained by either the production of retrotransposon piRNAs that differ across strains or structural differences in the telomere. Altogether, these results show that the capacity for piRNAs to mediate paramutation in trans may depend on the local chromatin environment and proximity to the uniquely structured telomere regulated by piRNAs. This system promises to provide significant insights into the mechanisms of paramutation.

FUS(1-359) transgenic mice as a model of ALS: pathophysiological and molecular aspects of the proteinopathy.

Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) is a neurodegenerative disorder that leads to the eventual death of motor neurons. Described cases of familial ALS have emphasized the significance of protein misfolding and aggregation of two functionally related proteins, FUS (fused in sarcoma) and TDP-43, implicated in RNA metabolism. Herein, we performed a comprehensive analysis of the in vivo model of FUS-mediated proteinopathy (ΔFUS(1-359) mice). First, we used the Noldus CatWalk system and confocal microscopy to determine the time of onset of the first clinical symptoms and the appearance of FUS-positive inclusions in the cytoplasm of neuronal cells. Second, we applied RNA-seq to evaluate changes in the gene expression profile encompassing the pre-symptomatic and the symptomatic stages of disease progression in motor neurons and the surrounding microglia of the spinal cord. The resulting data show that FUS-mediated proteinopathy is virtually asymptomatic in terms of both the clinical symptoms and the molecular aspects of neurodegeneration until it reaches the terminal stage of disease progression (120 days from birth). After this time, the pathological process develops very rapidly, resulting in the formation of massive FUS-positive inclusions accompanied by a transcriptional "burst" in the spinal cord cells. Specifically, it manifests in activation of a pro-inflammatory phenotype of microglial cells and malfunction of acetylcholine synapse transmission in motor neurons. Overall, we assume that the highly reproducible course of the pathological process, as well as the described accompanying features, makes ΔFUS(1-359) mice a convenient model for testing potential therapeutics against proteinopathy-induced decay of motor neurons.

Spontaneous gain of susceptibility suggests a novel mechanism of resistance to hybrid dysgenesis in Drosophila virilis.

Syndromes of hybrid dysgenesis (HD) have been critical for our understanding of the transgenerational maintenance of genome stability by piRNA. HD in D. virilis represents a special case of HD since it includes simultaneous mobilization of a set of TEs that belong to different classes. The standard explanation for HD is that eggs of the responder strains lack an abundant pool of piRNAs corresponding to the asymmetric TE families transmitted solely by sperm. However, there are several strains of D. virilis that lack asymmetric TEs, but exhibit a "neutral" cytotype that confers resistance to HD. To characterize the mechanism of resistance to HD, we performed a comparative analysis of the landscape of ovarian small RNAs in strains that vary in their resistance to HD mediated sterility. We demonstrate that resistance to HD cannot be solely explained by a maternal piRNA pool that matches the assemblage of TEs that likely cause HD. In support of this, we have witnessed a cytotype shift from neutral (N) to susceptible (M) in a strain devoid of all major TEs implicated in HD. This shift occurred in the absence of significant change in TE copy number and expression of piRNAs homologous to asymmetric TEs. Instead, this shift is associated with a change in the chromatin profile of repeat sequences unlikely to be causative of paternal induction. Overall, our data suggest that resistance to TE-mediated sterility during HD may be achieved by mechanisms that are distinct from the canonical syndromes of HD.

Drosophila Model for the Analysis of Genesis of LIM-kinase 1-Dependent Williams-Beuren Syndrome Cognitive Phenotypes: INDELs, Transposable Elements of the Tc1/Mariner Superfamily and MicroRNAs.

Genomic disorders, the syndromes with multiple manifestations, may occur sporadically due to unequal recombination in chromosomal regions with specific architecture. Therefore, each patient may carry an individual structural variant of DNA sequence (SV) with small insertions and deletions (INDELs) sometimes less than 10 bp. The transposable elements of the Tc1/mariner superfamily are often associated with hotspots for homologous recombination involved in human genetic disorders, such as Williams Beuren Syndromes (WBS) with LIM-kinase 1-dependent cognitive defects. The Drosophila melanogaster mutant agnts3 has unusual architecture of the agnostic locus harboring LIMK1: it is a hotspot of chromosome breaks, ectopic contacts, underreplication, and recombination. Here, we present the analysis of LIMK1-containing locus sequencing data in agnts3 and three D. melanogaster wild-type strains-Canton-S, Berlin, and Oregon-R. We found multiple strain-specific SVs, namely, single base changes and small INDEls. The specific feature of agnts3 is 28 bp A/T-rich insertion in intron 1 of LIMK1 and the insertion of mobile S-element from Tc1/mariner superfamily residing ~460 bp downstream LIMK1 3'UTR. Neither of SVs leads to amino acid substitutions in agnts3 LIMK1. However, they apparently affect the nucleosome distribution, non-canonical DNA structure formation and transcriptional factors binding. Interestingly, the overall expression of miRNAs including the biomarkers for human neurological diseases, is drastically reduced in agnts3 relative to the wild-type strains. Thus, LIMK1 DNA structure per se, as well as the pronounced changes in total miRNAs profile, probably lead to LIMK1 dysregulation and complex behavioral dysfunctions observed in agnts3 making this mutant a simple plausible Drosophila model for WBS.