Primordial germ cell specification requires global transcriptional repression. In C. elegans, the zygote (P0) undergoes four successive asymmetric divisions to generate the germline precursors P1, P2, P3 and finally P4, the germline founder. OMA-1 and OMA-2 (OMA1/2), cytoplasmic proteins degraded after the first mitotic cycle, repress global transcription in P0 and P1 by sequestering TAF-4, an RNA polymerase II pre-initiation complex component, while the maternal protein PIE-1 represses transcript elongation in P2-P4. Now, Rueyling Lin and colleagues report that OMA proteins repress transcription in P2-P4 indirectly by maintaining PIE-1 expression (see p. 3373). OMA-1/2, they show, repress zif-1 mRNA translation in oocytes; zif-1 encodes the substrate-binding subunit of the E3 ligase that marks PIE-1 for degradation. MBK-2, a kinase that is activated after fertilisation, controls OMA1/2 function, report the researchers. Thus, they suggest, MBK-2 phosphorylation of OMA1/2 acts as a key developmental switch in the oocyte-to-embryo transition by converting OMA proteins from specific translational repressors in oocytes to global transcriptional repressors in embryos.
OMA-1/2: repressors of translation and transcription
OMA-1/2: repressors of translation and transcription. Development 15 October 2010; 137 (20): e2002. doi:
Download citation file:
Advertisement
Cited by
Call for papers: Uncovering Developmental Diversity
Development invites you to submit your latest research to our upcoming special issue: Uncovering Developmental Diversity. This issue will be coordinated by our academic Editor Cassandra Extavour (Harvard University, USA) alongside two Guest Editors: Liam Dolan (Gregor Mendel Institute of Molecular Plant Biology, Austria) and Karen Sears (University of California Los Angeles, USA).
Choose Development in 2024
In this Editorial, Development Editor-in-Chief James Briscoe and Executive Editor Katherine Brown explain how you support your community by publishing in Development and how the journal champions serious science, community connections and progressive publishing.
Journal Meeting: From Stem Cells to Human Development
Register now for the 2024 Development Journal Meeting From Stem Cells to Human Development. Early-bird registration deadline: 3 May. Abstract submission deadline: 21 June.
Pluripotency of a founding field: rebranding developmental biology
This collaborative Perspective, the result of a workshop held in 2023, proposes a set of community actions to increase the visibility of the developmental biology field. The authors make recommendations for new funding streams, frameworks for collaborations and mechanisms by which members of the community can promote themselves and their research.
Read & Publish Open Access publishing: what authors say
We have had great feedback from authors who have benefitted from our Read & Publish agreement with their institution and have been able to publish Open Access with us without paying an APC. Read what they had to say.