{"id":4526,"date":"2015-07-09T18:00:50","date_gmt":"2015-07-09T16:00:50","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/news.embl.de\/?p=4526"},"modified":"2024-04-19T15:09:39","modified_gmt":"2024-04-19T13:09:39","slug":"1507-pirnas","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.embl.org\/news\/science\/1507-pirnas\/","title":{"rendered":"DNA protection, inch by inch"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

A European team of scientists has discovered how the cells produce tiny pieces of RNA \u2013 called piRNA \u2013 that identify and silence \u2018jumping genes\u2019 or transposons: genes that are able to change their position within the genome and therefore alter or disrupt the genetic code.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Comprising just 30 letters of genetic code, piRNA are only found within cells in the reproductive organs of animals, where ensuring the stability and integrity of DNA is of particularly vital importance. They bond to proteins called PIWI and guide them to the messenger RNA produced by the jumping genes, which the PIWI protein then destroys.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

They are also able to guide PIWI proteins to the jumping gene in the nucleus, which the PIWI protein silences, preventing it from creating more jumping gene RNA. Although piRNAs have been known about for many years, scientists have until now had very little understanding of exactly how the piRNAs that guide PIWI proteins to jumping genes in the nucleus are produced.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The research, which involved groups from EMBL Grenoble and CEA-Grenoble, tracked the action of piRNA by inserting an artificial \u2018jumping gene\u2019 into a fruit fly germ cell. The scientists were able to see the piRNA bind to a jumping gene messenger RNA in the cell\u2019s cytoplasm and to the PIWI protein, which then cut the first section from the jumping gene mRNA to silence it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We expected simply to see the jumping gene being silenced in the cytoplasm, so were really surprised to see it get converted into new piRNAs<\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

But destroying the jumping gene mRNA was only the start of the process, as the team discovered. The PIWI protein and piRNA then continued to work their way along the jumping gene \u2013 in a process dubbed \u2018inchworming\u2019 by the researchers \u2013 cutting off 30 letters of code at a time and converting these into new piRNAs. The new piRNAs were then loaded onto a PIWI protein that was able to travel to the cell nucleus, where the piRNAs could recognise the jumping gene within the DNA, enabling the PIWI protein to silence it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe expected simply to see the jumping gene being silenced in the cytoplasm, so were really surprised to see it get converted into new piRNAs that were specifically loaded onto the PIWI protein that silences transposons in the nucleus,\u201d explains Ramesh Pillai<\/a>, from EMBL Grenoble. \u201cCreating copies clearly increases the number of piRNAs that are able to recognise that particular jumping gene, as they retain the \u2018memory\u2019 of the original. This means that once the PIWI protein from the nucleus is loaded with the new piRNAs, it\u2019s able to target the right gene in the DNA and silence it more efficiently.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

While jumping genes provide some benefits, uncontrolled changes in the DNA of reproductive cells can lead to sterility. The team, involving Radha Raman Pandey and David Homolka from the Pillai lab, is now investigating whether the piRNAs follow the same \u2018inchworm\u2019 process within mammalian cells, to take them a step closer to understanding the process within humans.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

European team identify mechanism for producing piRNAs that silence jumping genes in germline cells.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":25,"featured_media":4530,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[2,17591],"tags":[40,41,42,37,1748,70],"embl_taxonomy":[],"class_list":["post-4526","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-science","category-science-technology","tag-gene-regulation","tag-genetics","tag-genomics","tag-grenoble","tag-press-release","tag-rna"],"acf":{"article_intro":"

DNA within reproductive cells is protected through a clever system of find and destroy: new research published in Cell Reports today<\/em>\u00a0lifts the veil on how this is done.<\/p>\n","related_links":[{"link_description":"Pillai group, EMBL Grenoble","link_url":"https:\/\/embl.fr\/research\/unit\/pillai\/index.html"},{"link_description":"This article first appeared as a press release on the EMBL website, 9 July 2015","link_url":"http:\/\/www.embl.org\/press\/2015\/150709_Grenoble"}],"article_sources":[{"source_description":"

Homolka, Raman Pandey, Goriaux et al.Cell Reports<\/em>, 9 July 2015. DOI: 10.1016\/j.celrep.2015.06.030<\/p>\n","source_link_url":"http:\/\/www.cell.com\/cell-reports\/abstract\/S2211-1247(15)00642-7"}],"vf_locked":false,"featured":false,"color":"#007B53","show_featured_image":false,"in_this_article":false,"youtube_url":"","mp4_url":"","video_caption":"","translations":false,"press_contact":"EMBL Generic"},"embl_taxonomy_terms":[],"yoast_head":"\nDNA protection, inch by inch | EMBL<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Pillai group help identify mechanism for producing piRNAs that silence jumping genes in germline cells.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.embl.org\/news\/science\/1507-pirnas\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"DNA protection, inch by inch | EMBL\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Pillai group help identify mechanism for producing piRNAs that silence jumping genes in germline cells.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.embl.org\/news\/science\/1507-pirnas\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"EMBL\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/embl.org\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2015-07-09T16:00:50+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2024-04-19T13:09:39+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.embl.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/07\/1507-pillai_ib.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"620\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"425\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Isabelle Kling\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@embl\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@embl\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Isabelle Kling\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"3 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"NewsArticle\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.embl.org\/news\/science\/1507-pirnas\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.embl.org\/news\/science\/1507-pirnas\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Isabelle Kling\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.embl.org\/news\/#\/schema\/person\/e0df3d2a7d51e01a8118c494997b85c3\"},\"headline\":\"DNA protection, inch by inch\",\"datePublished\":\"2015-07-09T16:00:50+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2024-04-19T13:09:39+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.embl.org\/news\/science\/1507-pirnas\/\"},\"wordCount\":509,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.embl.org\/news\/#organization\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.embl.org\/news\/science\/1507-pirnas\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.embl.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/07\/1507-pillai_ib.jpg\",\"keywords\":[\"gene regulation\",\"genetics\",\"genomics\",\"grenoble\",\"press release\",\"rna\"],\"articleSection\":[\"Science\",\"Science & Technology\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.embl.org\/news\/science\/1507-pirnas\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.embl.org\/news\/science\/1507-pirnas\/\",\"name\":\"DNA protection, inch by inch | EMBL\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.embl.org\/news\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.embl.org\/news\/science\/1507-pirnas\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.embl.org\/news\/science\/1507-pirnas\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.embl.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/07\/1507-pillai_ib.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2015-07-09T16:00:50+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2024-04-19T13:09:39+00:00\",\"description\":\"Pillai group help identify mechanism for producing piRNAs that silence jumping genes in germline cells.\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.embl.org\/news\/science\/1507-pirnas\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.embl.org\/news\/science\/1507-pirnas\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.embl.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/07\/1507-pillai_ib.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.embl.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/07\/1507-pillai_ib.jpg\",\"width\":620,\"height\":425,\"caption\":\"In germline cells PIWI proteins silence RNA from jumping genes by cutting them in sequences of ~30 nucleotides that will become piRNAs. 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