Chromatin-induced Spindle Assembly Plays an Important Role in Metaphase Congression of Silkworm Holocentric Chromosomes

The kinetochore plays important roles in cell cycle progression. Interactions between 4 chromosomes and spindle microtubules allow chromosomes to congress to the middle of the 5 cell and to segregate the sister chromatids into daughter cells in mitosis. The chromosome 6 passenger complex (CPC), composed of the Aurora B kinase and its regulatory subunits 7 INCENP, Survivin, and Borealin, plays multiple roles in these chromosomal events. In the 8 genome of the silkworm, Bombyx mori, which has holocentric chromosomes, the CPC 9 components and their molecular interactions were highly conserved. In contrast to 10 monocentric species, however, the silkworm CPC co-localized with the chromatin-driven 11 spindles on the upper side of prometaphase chromosomes without forming bipolar mitotic 12 spindles. Depletion of the CPC by RNAi arrested the cell cycle progression at prometaphase 13 and disrupted the microtubule network of the chromatin-driven spindles. Interestingly, 14 depletion of mitotic centromere-associated kinesin (MCAK) recovered formation of the 15 microtubule network but did not overcome the cell cycle arrest at prometaphase. These 16 results suggest that the CPC modulates the chromatin-induced spindle assembly and 17 metaphase congression of silkworm holocentric chromosomes

Roles of Piwi Proteins in Transcriptional Regulation Mediated by HP1s in Cultured Silkworm Cells

Piwi proteins are part of a superfamily of Argonaute proteins, which are one of the core components of the RNA silencing pathway in many eukaryotes. Piwi proteins are thought to repress the transposon expression both transcriptionally and post-transcriptionally. Recently, Drosophila melanogaster Piwi was recently reported to associate with chromatin and to interact directly with the Heterochromatin Protein 1 (HP1a). However, similar interactions have not been reported in other higher eukaryotes. Here we show that silkworm Piwi proteins interact with HP1s in the nucleus. The silkworm, Bombyx mori, has two Piwi proteins, Ago3 and Siwi, and two typical HP1 proteins, HP1a and HP1b. We found that HP1a plays an important role in the interaction between Ago3/Siwi and HP1b in the ovary-derived BmN4 cell line. We also found that Ago3/Siwi regulates the transcription in an HP1-dependent manner. These results suggest that silkworm Piwi proteins function as a chromatin regulator in collaboration with HP1a and HP1b

Role of the silkworm argonaute2 homolog gene in double-strand break repair of extrachromosomal DNA

The argonaute protein family provides central components for RNA interference (RNAi) and related phenomena in a wide variety of organisms. Here, we isolated, from a Bombyx mori cell, a cDNA clone named BmAGO2, which is homologous to Drosophila ARGONAUTE2, the gene encoding a repressive factor for the recombination repair of extrachromosomal double-strand breaks (DSBs). RNAi-mediated silencing of the BmAGO2 sequence markedly increased homologous recombination (HR) repair of DSBs in episomal DNA, but had no effect on that in chromosomes. Moreover, we found that RNAi for BmAGO2 enhanced the integration of linearized DNA into a silkworm chromosome via HR. These results suggested that BmAgo2 protein plays an indispensable role in the repression of extrachromosomal DSB repair

Genome-Wide Identification of Polycomb Target Genes Reveals a Functional Association of Pho with Scm in Bombyx mori

Polycomb group (PcG) proteins are evolutionarily conserved chromatin modifiers and act together in three multimeric complexes, Polycomb repressive complex 1 (PRC1), Polycomb repressive complex 2 (PRC2), and Pleiohomeotic repressive complex (PhoRC), to repress transcription of the target genes. Here, we identified Polycomb target genes in Bombyx mori with holocentric centromere using genome-wide expression screening based on the knockdown of BmSCE, BmESC, BmPHO, or BmSCM gene, which represent the distinct complexes. As a result, the expressions of 29 genes were up-regulated after knocking down 4 PcG genes. Particularly, there is a significant overlap between targets of BmPho (331 out of 524) and BmScm (331 out of 532), and among these, 190 genes function as regulator factors playing important roles in development. We also found that BmPho, as well as BmScm, can interact with other Polycomb components examined in this study. Further detailed analysis revealed that the C-terminus of BmPho containing zinc finger domain is involved in the interaction between BmPho and BmScm. Moreover, the zinc finger domain in BmPho contributes to its inhibitory function and ectopic overexpression of BmScm is able to promote transcriptional repression by Gal4-Pho fusions including BmScm-interacting domain. Loss of BmPho expression causes relocalization of BmScm into the cytoplasm. Collectively, we provide evidence of a functional link between BmPho and BmScm, and propose two Polycomb-related repression mechanisms requiring only BmPho associated with BmScm or a whole set of PcG complexes

Differential contribution of the Fanconi anemia-related proteins to repair of several types of DNA damage in cultured silkworm cells

AbstractThe silkworm Fanconi anemia (FA) pathway is required for normal cellular resistance to mitomycin C (MMC) in silkworms, but little is known about the requirement for repair of other types of DNA damage. Here we report that silkworm cells deficient for FA proteins FancD2 and FancM exhibit normal sensitivities to hydroxyurea (HU) and camptothecin (CPT), although FancM-dependent FancD2 monoubiquitination is induced upon these treatments. Similar results were observed in cells depleted for Rmi1 and Mhf1, which interact with the FancM protein. We also found that Rad51-knockdown cells exhibited normal sensitivity to HU despite induction of double-strand breaks by HU treatment

Comprehensive Transcriptome Analysis in the Testis of the Silkworm, <i>Bombyx mori</i>

Spermatogenesis is an important process in reproduction and is conserved across species, but in Bombyx mori, it shows peculiarities, such as the maintenance of spermatogonia by apical cells and fertilization by dimorphic spermatozoa. In this study, we attempted to characterize the genes expressed in the testis of B. mori, focusing on aspects of expression patterns and gene function by transcriptome comparisons between different tissues, internal testis regions, and Drosophila melanogaster. The transcriptome analysis of 12 tissues of B. mori, including those of testis, revealed the widespread gene expression of 20,962 genes and 1705 testis-specific genes. A comparative analysis of the stem region (SR) and differentiated regions (DR) of the testis revealed 4554 and 3980 specific-enriched genes, respectively. In addition, comparisons with D. melanogaster testis transcriptome revealed homologs of 1204 SR and 389 DR specific-enriched genes that were similarly expressed in equivalent regions of Drosophila testis. Moreover, gene ontology (GO) enrichment analysis was performed for SR-specific enriched genes and DR-specific enriched genes, and the GO terms of several biological processes were enriched, confirming previous findings. This study advances our understanding of spermatogenesis in B. mori and provides an important basis for future research, filling a knowledge gap between fly and mammalian studies