High impact information on gld-2

• Here we report that the Caenorhabditis elegans gene gld-2, a regulator of mitosis/meiosis decision and other germline events, encodes the catalytic moiety of a cytoplasmic poly(A) polymerase (PAP) that is associated with P granules in early embryos [1].
• Our data demonstrate that nos-3 promotes GLD-1 accumulation redundantly with gld-2, and that nos-3 functions genetically downstream or parallel to fbf, an inhibitor of GLD-1 translation [2].
• With respect to this second function, gld-2 appears to be functionally redundant with a previously described gene, gld-1 (Francis, R., Barton, M. K., Kimble, J. and Schedl, T. (1995) Genetics 139, 579-606) [3].
• First, gld-2 is required for normal progression through meiotic prophase [3].
• The gld-2 C-to-U editing event changes the codon from CCG to CUG, which is predicted to cause a proline to leucine substitution in the protein sequence [4].

Biological context of gld-2

• Second, gld-2 promotes entry into meiosis from the mitotic cell cycle [3].

Anatomical context of gld-2

• Germ cells in gld-1(o) and gld-2 single mutants enter meiosis at the normal time, but germ cells in gld-2 gld-1(o) double mutants do not enter meiosis [3].

References