P-268 Unique Argonaute isoforms from mammalian oocytes: unveiling their true purpose
Authors: Roos Kulmann M  I , Kataruka S , Malik R , Svoboda P 
Published: July 2024

Abstract

Study question
How does the mouse oocyte-specific AGO2 isoform (AGO2ooc) affect RNA interference (RNAi) and microRNA (miRNA) pathways?

Summary answer
Mouse AGO2ooc presents reduced RNAi-like endonucleolytic cleavage of perfectly complementary targets. Functional analysis of its impact on fertility and oocyte transcriptome control is in progress.

What is known already
Argonaute proteins play a pivotal role in effector complexes dedicated to miRNA and RNAi pathways, where small RNAs mediate sequence-specific repression of target RNAs. While all mammalian AGO proteins (AGO1 to AGO4) can function in the miRNA pathway, inhibiting target translation, AGO2 uniquely engages in the RNAi pathway, directing the endonucleolytic cleavage of targets perfectly complementary to small RNAs. In mammalian somatic cells, miRNAs are part of a crucial posttranscriptional regulation network, while RNAi is mostly non-functional. Mouse oocytes, however, deviate from this norm: miRNA regulation proves dispensable, while the abrogation of RNAi results in meiotic spindle defects and sterility.

Study design, size, duration
Experimental study.

Participants/materials, setting, methods
We pooled 25 fully-grown GV oocytes in triplicates from non-stimulated 10-12 weeks-old C57BI/6NCrl females for RNA isolation and sequencing. To assess RNAi-like and miRNA-like activity, we transfected Ago2ooc/ooc clones and WT cells with NanoLuc luciferase reporters bearing one perfect complementary (1xP, RNAi-like), four bulged (4xB, miRNA-like) or four mutated (4xM, control) sites for Let-7a and miR-30c. A firefly luciferase reporter without any site was co-transfected for normalization purposes.

Main results and the role of chance
RNA sequencing revealed an alternative exon-1 in mouse oocyte AGO2, producing an isoform (AGO2ooc) with different amino acid composition in the N-terminus. Interestingly, the somatic version of this N-terminus presents amino acid residues known to be post-translationally modified. These residues are absent in AGO2ooc. To functionally analyze the oocyte-specific N-terminus, we genetically engineered NIH3T3 fibroblasts to express the oocyte alternative exon-1 (Ago2ooc/ooc). Notably, AGO2ooc-expressing cells presented reduced RNAi-like (2-5 fold) but indistinguishable miRNA-like activity when compared to WT cells in reporter assays for Let-7a and miR-30c. The lower RNAi-like activity presented by AGO2ooc-expressing cells was further confirmed in an independent RNAi assay employing the expression of dsRNA hairpins. Both isoforms showed similar abundance in fibroblasts and similar cleavage activity in vitro. Next, we wondered whether AGO2ooc also displays reduced RNAi activity in vivo. To answer that, we generated mouse models whose oocytes would express the somatic AGO2 isoform instead of the AGO2ooc, or N-terminal variants with mutations in putative key amino acid residues. These models will be further utilized to assess fertility and oocyte transcriptome.

Limitations, reasons for caution
We must investigate whether AGO2ooc also displays differential RNAi activity in mouse oocytes and is relevant for oocyte competence, using the developed mouse models.

Wider implications of the findings
Mouse oocytes are known to exceptionally operate RNAi. Remarkably, AGO2, the effector nuclease associated with RNAi-like target cleavage has a different N-terminus in oocytes, suggesting that this factor could have adapted to this atypical regulation. We hypothesize that AGO2ooc controls RNAi repression, gene expression and oocyte competence.

Trial registration number
not applicable