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Reduction of mRNA export unmasks different tissue sensitivities to low mRNA levels during Caenorhabditis elegans development

2019; Public Library of Science; Volume: 15; Issue: 9 Linguagem: Inglês

10.1371/journal.pgen.1008338

1553-7404

Angelina Zheleva, Eva Gómez‐Orte, Beatriz Sáenz‐Narciso, Begoña Ezcurra, Henok Kassahun, María de Toro, Antonio Miranda‐Vizuete, Ralf Schnabel, Hilde Nilsen, Juan Cabello,

Nuclear Structure and Function

Animal development requires the execution of specific transcriptional programs in different sets of cells to build tissues and functional organs. Transcripts are exported from the nucleus to the cytoplasm where they are translated into proteins that, ultimately, carry out the cellular functions. Here we show that in Caenorhabditis elegans, reduction of mRNA export strongly affects epithelial morphogenesis and germline proliferation while other tissues remain relatively unaffected. Epithelialization and gamete formation demand a large number of transcripts in the cytoplasm for the duration of these processes. In addition, our findings highlight the existence of a regulatory feedback mechanism that activates gene expression in response to low levels of cytoplasmic mRNA. We expand the genetic characterization of nuclear export factor NXF-1 to other members of the mRNA export pathway to model mRNA export and recycling of NXF-1 back to the nucleus. Our model explains how mutations in genes involved in general processes, such as mRNA export, may result in tissue-specific developmental phenotypes.