Multiple potential germ-line helicases are components of the germ-line-specific P granules of Caenorhabditis elegans

Multiple potential germ-line helicases are components of the germ-line-specific P granules of Caenorhabditis elegans

^*Department of Molecular Microbiology and Immunology, University of Missouri, Columbia, MO 65212; and ^‡Department of Biology, Indiana University, Bloomington, IN 47405

Abstract

Two components of the germ-line-specific P granules of the nematode Caenorhabditis elegans have been identified using polyclonal antibodies specific for each. Both components are putative germ-line RNA helicases (GLHs) that contain CCHC zinc fingers of the type found in the RNA-binding nucleocapsid proteins of retroviruses. The predicted GLH-1 protein has four CCHC fingers; GLH-2 has six. Both GLH proteins localize in the P granules at all stages of germ-line development. However, the two glh genes display different patterns of RNA and protein accumulation in the germ lines of hermaphrodites and males. Injection of antisense glh-1 or glh-2 RNA into wild-type worms causes some offspring to develop into sterile adults, suggesting that either or both genes are required for normal germ-line development. As these very similar glh genes physically map within several hundred kilobases of one another, it seems likely that they represent a fairly recent gene duplication event.

Footnotes

↵ † Present address: Department of Pathology, Moffitt Cancer Center, University of South Florida, Tampa, FL 33612.
↵ ¶ Present address: Bristol–Myers Squibb, Pharmaceutical Research Institute, P.O. Box 4000, Princeton, NJ 08543.
↵ § To whom reprint requests should be addressed. e-mail: bennettkl{at}medsci.mbp.missouri.edu.
William B. Wood, University of Colorado, Boulder, CO
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Abbreviations: GLH, germ-line helicase; UTR, untranslated region; DAPI, 4′,6-diamidino-2-phenylindole.

Data deposition: The sequences reported in this paper have been deposited in the GenBank data base (accession nos. glh-2 cDNA, U60194U60194; glh-2 genomic, U60449U60449; glh-1 cDNA, L19948L19948; glh-1 genomic, U62772U62772).