期刊名称：Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences
印刷版ISSN：0027-8424
电子版ISSN：1091-6490
出版年度：2010
卷号：107
期号：37
页码：16148-16153
DOI：10.1073/pnas.1004401107
语种：English
出版社：The National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America
摘要：Segregation of the future germ line defines a crucial cell fate decision during animal development. In Xenopus, germ cells are specified by inheritance of vegetally localized maternal determinants, including a group of specific mRNAs. Here, we show that the vegetal localization elements (LE) of Xenopus Dead end (XDE) and of several other germ-line-specific, vegetally localized transcripts mediate germ cell-specific stabilization and somatic clearance of microinjected reporter mRNA in Xenopus embryos. The part of XDE-LE critical for somatic RNA clearance exhibits homology to zebrafish nanos1 and appears to be targeted by Xenopus miR-18 for somatic mRNA clearance. Xenopus Elr-type proteins of the vegetal localization complex can alleviate somatic RNA clearance of microinjected XDE-LE and endogenous XDE mRNA. ElrB1 synergizes with Xenopus Dead end protein in the stabilization of XDE-LE mRNA. Taken together, our findings unveil a functional link of vegetal mRNA localization and the protection of germ-line mRNAs from somatic clearance.
