Skip to main content

Thank you for visiting nature.com. You are using a browser version with limited support for CSS. To obtain the best experience, we recommend you use a more up to date browser (or turn off compatibility mode in Internet Explorer). In the meantime, to ensure continued support, we are displaying the site without styles and JavaScript.

  • Research Briefing
  • Published:

How mothers program sons to use their Y chromosomes

Nature Cell Biology volume 25, pages 1413–1414 (2023)Cite this article

Subjects

In many species, maternally deposited Piwi-interacting RNAs (piRNAs) deliver intergenerational epigenetic information to protect progeny from transposon expansion or invasion. However, Y-chromosome-encoded piRNAs cannot be passed from mothers to male offspring, yet mothers use autosomally encoded piRNAs to allow sons to utilize their Y chromosome to protect against ‘selfish’ elements.

This is a preview of subscription content, access via your institution

Access options

Buy this article

  • Purchase on Springer Link
  • Instant access to full article PDF
Buy now

Prices may be subject to local taxes which are calculated during checkout

Fig. 1: Armitage is required for repression of Ste in XX mothers but not in XXY mothers.

References

  1. Ozata, D. M., Gainetdinov, I., Zoch, A., O'Carroll, D. & Zamore, P. D. PIWI-interacting RNAs: small RNAs with big functions. Nat. Rev. Genet. 20, 89–108 (2019). This review article summarizes the mechanisms of piRNA biogenesis.

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  2. Brennecke, J. et al. An epigenetic role for maternally inherited piRNAs in transposon silencing. Science 322, 1387–1392 (2008). This paper showed the importance of maternally inherited piRNAs.

    Article  CAS  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  3. Aravin, A. A. et al. Double-stranded RNA-mediated silencing of genomic tandem repeats and transposable elements in the D. melanogaster germline. Curr. Biol. 11, 101–1027 (2001). This paper describes the discovery of Su(Ste) piRNAs.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  4. Mohn, F., Handler, D. & Brennecke, J. Noncoding RNA. piRNA-guided slicing specifies transcripts for Zucchini-dependent, phased piRNA biogenesis. Science 348, 812–817 (2015). This paper describes the discovery of phased piRNA biogenesis.

    Article  CAS  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  5. Han, B. W., Wang, W., Li, C., Weng, Z. & Zamore, P. D. Noncoding RNA. piRNA-guided transposon cleavage initiates Zucchini-dependent, phased piRNA production. Science 348, 817–821 (2015). This paper describes the discovery of phased piRNA biogenesis.

    Article  CAS  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

Download references

Additional information

Publisher’s note Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.

This is a summary of: Venkei, Z. G. et al. A maternally programmed intergenerational mechanism enables male offspring to make piRNAs from Y-linked precursor RNAs in Drosophila. Nat. Cell Biol. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41556-023-01227-4 (2023).

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this article

How mothers program sons to use their Y chromosomes. Nat Cell Biol 25, 1413–1414 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41556-023-01239-0

Download citation

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41556-023-01239-0

Search

Advanced search

Quick links

Nature Briefing

Sign up for the Nature Briefing newsletter — what matters in science, free to your inbox daily.

Get the most important science stories of the day, free in your inbox. Sign up for Nature Briefing