6b57

Publication Abstract from PubMed

The P-element-induced wimpy testis (PIWI)-interacting RNA (piRNA) pathway plays a central role in transposon silencing and genome protection in the animal germline. A family of Tudor domain proteins regulates the piRNA pathway through direct Tudor domain-PIWI interactions. Tudor domains are known to fulfill this function by binding to methylated PIWI proteins in an arginine methylation-dependent manner. Here, we report a mechanism of methylation-independent Tudor domain-PIWI interaction. Unlike most other Tudor domains, the extended Tudor domain of mammalian Tudor domain-containing protein 2 (TDRD2) preferentially recognizes an unmethylated arginine-rich sequence from PIWI-like protein 1 (PIWIL1). Structural studies reveal an unexpected Tudor domain-binding mode for the PIWIL1 sequence in which the interface of Tudor and staphylococcal nuclease domains is primarily responsible for PIWIL1 peptide recognition. Mutations disrupting the TDRD2-PIWIL1 interaction compromise piRNA maturation via 3'-end trimming in vitro. Our work presented here reveals the molecular divergence of the interactions between different Tudor domain proteins and PIWI proteins.

Structural basis for arginine methylation-independent recognition of PIWIL1 by TDRD2.,Zhang H, Liu K, Izumi N, Huang H, Ding D, Ni Z, Sidhu SS, Chen C, Tomari Y, Min J Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 2017 Nov 8. pii: 201711486. doi:, 10.1073/pnas.1711486114. PMID:29118143^[1]

From MEDLINE®/PubMed®, a database of the U.S. National Library of Medicine.