Generation of Drosophila sisRNAs by Independent Transcription from Cognate Introns

Sharon Si Jia Ng; Ruther Teo Zheng; Ismail Osman; Jun Wei Pek

doi:10.1016/j.isci.2018.05.010

Generation of Drosophila sisRNAs by Independent Transcription from Cognate Introns

iScience. 2018 Jun 29:4:68-75. doi: 10.1016/j.isci.2018.05.010. Epub 2018 May 18.

Authors

Sharon Si Jia Ng¹, Ruther Teo Zheng², Ismail Osman³, Jun Wei Pek⁴

Affiliations

¹ Temasek Polytechnic, 21 Tampines Avenue 1, Singapore 529757, Singapore.
² Ngee Ann Polytechnic, 535 Clementi Road, Singapore 599489, Singapore.
³ Temasek Life Sciences Laboratory, National University of Singapore, 1 Research Link, Singapore 117604, Singapore; Department of Biological Sciences, National University of Singapore 117543, Singapore, Singapore.
⁴ Temasek Life Sciences Laboratory, National University of Singapore, 1 Research Link, Singapore 117604, Singapore. Electronic address: junwei@tll.org.sg.

Abstract

Although stable intronic sequence RNAs (sisRNAs) are conserved in plants and animals, their functional significance is still unclear. We identify a pool of polyadenylated maternally deposited sisRNAs in Drosophila melanogaster. These sisRNAs can be generated by independent transcription from the cognate introns. The ovary-specific poly(A) polymerase Wispy mediates the polyadenylation of maternal sisRNAs and confers their stability as maternal transcripts. A developmentally regulated sisRNA sisR-3 represses the expression of a long noncoding RNA CR44148 and is required during development. Our results expand the pool of sisRNAs and suggest that sisRNAs perform regulatory functions during development in Drosophila.

Keywords: Developmental Biology; Molecular Biology; Molecular Mechanism of Gene Regulation; Transcriptomics.