@article{2832c9eab8944d228619ce3617275d7c,
title = "PiRNA production requires heterochromatin formation in drosophila",
abstract = "Protecting the genome from transposable element (TE) mobilization is critical for germline development. In Drosophila, Piwi proteins and their bound small RNAs (piRNAs) provide a potent defense against TE activity. TE targeting piRNAs are processed from TE-dense heterochromatic loci termed piRNA clusters. Although piRNA biogenesis from cluster precursors is beginning to be understood, little is known about piRNA cluster transcriptional regulation. Here, we show that deposition of histone 3 lysine 9 by the methyltransferase dSETDB1 (egg) is required for piRNA cluster transcription. In the absence of dSETDB1, cluster precursor transcription collapses in germline and somatic gonadal cells and TEs are activated, resulting in germline loss and a block in germline stem cell differentiation. We propose that heterochromatin protects the germline by activating the piRNA pathway.",
author = "Prashanth Rangan and Malone, {Colin D.} and Caryn Navarro and Newbold, {Sam P.} and Hayes, {Patrick S.} and Ravi Sachidanandam and Hannon, {Gregory J.} and Ruth Lehmann",
note = "Funding Information: We are particularly grateful to all members of the Lehmann laboratory for discussion and extensive comments on the manuscript, in particular Daria Siekhaus, Allison Blum, Saskia Houwing, and Thomas Hurd for comments and discussion. We also thank Alexander Stark for computational assistance. We thank the Transgenic RNAi Resource Project at Harvard Medical School (NIH/NIGMS grant R01-GM084947) for providing transgenic RNAi fly stocks used in this study. We thank Tulle Hazelrigg (egg) as well as the Bloomington Drosophila Stock Center and FlyBase for sharing fly stocks and antibodies. We thank Dan Vasiliauskas, Susan Morton, Tom Jessell, and Ed Laufer for the pMad antibody. P.R. is an Howard Hughes Medical Institute (HHMI) Research Associate. R.L. is an HHMI Investigator and a member of the Kimmel Center for Stem Cell Biology at NYU Langone Medical Center. G.J.H. is an HHMI Investigator and is funded in part by grants from the National Institutes of Health and a kind gift from Kathryn W. Davis. ",
year = "2011",
month = aug,
day = "23",
doi = "10.1016/j.cub.2011.06.057",
language = "English",
volume = "21",
pages = "1373--1379",
journal = "Current Biology",
issn = "0960-9822",
publisher = "Cell Press",
number = "16",
}