RESUMO
BACKGROUND: Germline nuclear RNAi in C. elegans is a transgenerational gene-silencing pathway that leads to H3K9 trimethylation (H3K9me3) and transcriptional silencing at the target genes. H3K9me3 induced by either exogenous double-stranded RNA (dsRNA) or endogenous siRNA (endo-siRNA) is highly specific to the target loci and transgenerationally heritable. Despite these features, the role of H3K9me3 in siRNA-mediated transcriptional silencing and inheritance of the silencing state at native target genes is unclear. In this study, we took combined genetic and whole-genome approaches to address this question. RESULTS: Here we demonstrate that siRNA-mediated H3K9me3 requires combined activities of three H3K9 histone methyltransferases: MET-2, SET-25, and SET-32. set-32 single, met-2 set-25 double, and met-2 set-25;set-32 triple mutant adult animals all exhibit prominent reductions in H3K9me3 throughout the genome, with met-2 set-25;set-32 mutant worms losing all detectable H3K9me3 signals. Surprisingly, loss of high-magnitude H3K9me3 at the native nuclear RNAi targets has no effect on the transcriptional silencing state. In addition, the exogenous dsRNA-induced transcriptional silencing and heritable RNAi at oma-1, a well-established nuclear RNAi reporter gene, are completely resistant to the loss of H3K9me3. CONCLUSIONS: Nuclear RNAi-mediated H3K9me3 in C. elegans requires multiple histone methyltransferases, including MET-2, SET-25, and SET-32. H3K9me3 is not essential for dsRNA-induced heritable RNAi or the maintenance of endo-siRNA-mediated transcriptional silencing in C. elegans. We propose that siRNA-mediated transcriptional silencing in C. elegans can be maintained by an H3K9me3-independent mechanism.
Assuntos
Proteínas de Caenorhabditis elegans/metabolismo , Caenorhabditis elegans/genética , Histonas/metabolismo , Interferência de RNA , RNA Interferente Pequeno/metabolismo , Animais , Caenorhabditis elegans/metabolismo , Proteínas de Caenorhabditis elegans/antagonistas & inibidores , Proteínas de Caenorhabditis elegans/genética , Proteínas de Transporte/antagonistas & inibidores , Proteínas de Transporte/genética , Proteínas de Transporte/metabolismo , Imunoprecipitação da Cromatina , Genoma , Instabilidade Genômica , Células Germinativas/metabolismo , Sequenciamento de Nucleotídeos em Larga Escala , Histona Metiltransferases , Histona-Lisina N-Metiltransferase/genética , Histona-Lisina N-Metiltransferase/metabolismo , Histonas/genética , Metilação , Microscopia de Fluorescência , Mutagênese , RNA de Cadeia Dupla/metabolismo , RNA Mensageiro/metabolismo , Reação em Cadeia da Polimerase em Tempo Real , Análise de Sequência de RNA , Transcrição GênicaRESUMO
Infiltrating leukocytes are exposed to a wide range of tissue elasticities. While we know the effects of substrate elasticity on acute inflammation via the study of neutrophil migration, we do not know its effects on leukocytes that direct chronic inflammatory events. Here, we studied morphology and motility of macrophages, the innate immune cells that orchestrate acute and chronic inflammation, on polyacrylamide hydrogels that mimicked a wide range of tissue elasticities. As expected, we found that macrophage spreading area increased as substrate elasticity increased. Unexpectedly, we found that morphology did not inversely correlate with motility. In fact, velocity of steady-state macrophages remained unaffected by substrate elasticity, while velocity of biologically stimulated macrophages was limited on stiff substrates. We also found that the lack of motility on stiff substrates was due to a lack of lipid rafts on the leading edge of the macrophages. This study implicates lipid rafts in the mechanosensory mechanism of innate immune cell infiltration.
