ArticlePLoS biology2023
The absence of core piRNA biogenesis factors does not impact efficient transposon silencing in Drosophila.
Article in PLoS biology, 2023. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 18 papers.
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Who cites it
18 citing papers in PubMed, 27 citations in OpenAlex.
- Host-transposable element coexistence: a matter of resistance, tolerance and trade-off.The EMBO journal · 2026Review
- Conserved but mechanistically diverse piRNA defence against endogenous retroviruses in insects.EMBO reports · 2026Article
- Recurrent innovation of protein-protein interactions in the Drosophila piRNA pathway.The EMBO journal · 2026Article
- Comparative functional and evolutionary analysis of essential germline stem cell genes across the genus Drosophila and two outgroup species.G3 (Bethesda, Md.) · 2025Article
- Analysis of somatic piRNAs in the malaria mosquitoRNA biology · 2025Article
- A second genetic screen for gurken mRNA mislocalisation uncovers novel phenotypes of piRNA pathway mutants in Drosophila.Biology open · 2025Article
- piRNA processing within non-membrane structures is governed by constituent proteins and their functional motifs.The FEBS journal · 2025Review
- Evolution of piRNA-guided defense against transposable elements.Trends in genetics : TIG · 2025Review
- A guide to the biogenesis and functions of endogenous small non-coding RNAs in animals.Nature reviews. Molecular cell biology · 2025Review
- Regulatory roles of PIWI-interacting RNAs in cardiovascular disease.American journal of physiology. Heart and circulatory physiology · 2025Review
- PIWI proteins and piRNAs: key regulators of stem cell biology.Frontiers in cell and developmental biology · 2025Review
- Non-gonadal expression of piRNAs is widespread across Arthropoda.FEBS letters · 2025Review
- A model that integrates the different piRNA biogenesis pathways based on studies in silkwormCurrent research in insect science · 2025Review
- FlaHMM: unistrandNAR genomics and bioinformatics · 2024Article
- Embryonic piRNAs target horizontally transferred vertebrate transposons in assassin bugs.Frontiers in cell and developmental biology · 2024Article
- Unistrand piRNA clusters are an evolutionarily conserved mechanism to suppress endogenous retroviruses across the Drosophila genus.Nature communications · 2023Article
- Themes and variations on piRNA-guided transposon control.Mobile DNA · 2023Review
- Some flies do not play ping-pong.PLoS biology · 2023Article
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2 authors at 1 institution in 1 country.
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No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
Organisms require mechanisms to distinguish self and non-self-RNA. This distinction is crucial to initiate the biogenesis of Piwi-interacting RNAs (piRNAs). In Drosophila ovaries, PIWI-guided slicing and the recognition of piRNA precursor transcripts by the DEAD-box RNA helicase Yb are the 2 known mechanisms to licence an RNA for piRNA biogenesis in the germline and the soma, respectively. Both the PIWI proteins and Yb are highly conserved across most Drosophila species and are thought to be essential to the piRNA pathway and for silencing transposons. However, we find that species closely related to Drosophila melanogaster have lost the yb gene, as well as the PIWI gene Ago3. We show that the precursor RNA is still selected in the absence of Yb to abundantly generate transposon antisense piRNAs in the soma. We further demonstrate that Drosophila eugracilis, which lacks Ago3, is completely devoid of ping-pong piRNAs and exclusively produces phased piRNAs in the absence of slicing. Thus, core piRNA pathway genes can be lost in evolution while still maintaining efficient transposon silencing.
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