D. Cox, A. Chao, W. Deng, J. Baker, and H. Lin. Dept. of Cell Biol., Duke Univ.
Genetic analysis reveals that piwi is under sex-specific regulation.
We have cloned the piwi locus and identified a 3.1kb transcript that is expressed in both males and females and is disrupted by piwi mutations. In the ovary, the piwi RNA is detectable in region 2 of the germarium, in the germline of early stage egg chambers and is strongly expressed in the nurse cells and oocyte of stage 10 and beyone egg chambers. Clonal analyses suggest that PIWI is required first in apical somatic cells for GSC division and then in the germline as a maternal component for embryogenesis. Meanwhile, we have identified PIWI-like proteins in diversified organisms, including C. elegans , mouse and human. The C-terminal portion of PIWI appears to be particularly well conserved among these organisms.