The sperm-oocyte switch in the C. elegans hermaphrodite is controlled through steady-state levels of the fem-3 mRNA
- Simone Zanetti,
- Sonja Grinschgl,
- Marco Meola,
- Marco Belfiore,
- Samantha Rey,
- Pamela Bianchi and
- Alessandro Puoti1
Abstract
Post-transcriptional control regulates many aspects of germline development in the Caenorhabditis elegans hermaphrodite. This nematode switches from spermatogenesis to oogenesis and is, therefore, capable of self-fertilization. This sperm-oocyte switch requires 3′ UTR-mediated repression of the fem-3 mRNA. Loss of fem-3 repression results in continuous spermatogenesis in hermaphrodites. Although several factors regulating fem-3 have been identified, little is known about the mechanisms that control fem-3. Here, we investigate the steady-state levels of the fem-3 transcript and the expression pattern of its protein product. We show that FEM-3 is exclusively present in germ cells that are committed to spermatogenesis. We found that in fem-3(gf)/+ heterozygotes, mutant fem-3 gain-of-function transcripts are more abundant than their wild-type counterpart. Furthermore, we show that the penetrance of the fem-3(gf) allele correlates with inefficient FBF binding and extended poly(A) tail size of fem-3 mRNAs. Finally, we show that wild-type and gain-of-function mutated fem-3 mRNAs associate equally well with polyribosomes. We propose that the fem-3 mRNA is regulated through stabilization rather than through translatability.
Keywords
Footnotes
-
↵1 Corresponding author
E-mail alessandro.puoti{at}unifr.ch
-
Article published online ahead of print. Article and publication date are at http://www.rnajournal.org/cgi/doi/10.1261/rna.031237.111.
- Received November 4, 2011.
- Accepted May 1, 2012.
- Copyright © 2012 RNA Society
