Disease relevance of aub

• A presumptive sti null allele results in male sterility and lethal maternal effect [1].

High impact information on aub

• Enhanced frequency of TART, but not HeT-A, attachments in individuals carrying one dose of mutant spn-E or aub alleles suggests that TART is a primary target of the RNAi machinery [2].
• Here, we report the identification and analysis of a novel Drosophila gene, sticky (sti), essential for cytokinesis in all fly proliferating tissues. sti encodes the Drosophila orthologue of the mammalian Citron kinase [3].
• Consistent with its presence in these structures, Aubergine is required for pole cell formation independently of its initial role in oskar translation [4].
• Aubergine encodes a Drosophila polar granule component required for pole cell formation and related to eIF2C [4].
• We have isolated two new alleles of aubergine in a novel genetic screen and have shown that aubergine is also required for posterior body patterning, as the small fraction of eggs from aubergine- mothers that are fertilized develop into embryos which lack abdominal segmentation [5].

Biological context of aub

• Since an interaction between heterochromatin formation and RNA interference has been reported in various organisms, we tested the effect of mutant alleles of aubergine, a gene that has been shown to play a role in RNA interference in Drosophila, on the repressive properties of telomeric P elements [6].
• Oskar is a component of polar granules, large particles associated with the pole plasm and the germline precursor pole cells of the embryo. aubergine mutants fail to translate oskar mRNA efficiently and are thus defective in posterior body patterning and pole cell formation [4].
• Unlike two other known polar granule components, Vasa and Oskar, Aubergine remains cytoplasmic after pole cell formation, suggesting that the roles of these proteins diverge during embryogenesis [4].
• The sti mutation leads to meiotic drive of the sex chromosomes, and the strength of the phenomenon is correlated with the copy number of the repetitive Ste locus [1].
• Previously, aubergine has been implicated in dorsoventral patterning, as eggs from aubergine mutant mothers are ventralized and seldom fertilized (Schupbach, T. and Wieschaus, E. (1991) Genetics 129, 1119-1136) [5].

Anatomical context of aub

• VASA and AUBERGINE proteins are known as components of perinuclear ribonucleoprotein particles in germ cells, and spn-E mutation disturbs protein content of the particles [7].
• RNAi is activated during Drosophila oocyte maturation in a manner dependent on aubergine and spindle-E [8].

Associations of aub with chemical compounds

• Aub- and Piwi-associated rasiRNAs showed a strong preference for uracil at their 5' ends, and AGO3-associated rasiRNAs showed a strong preference for adenine at nucleotide 10 [9].

Regulatory relationships of aub

• aubergine enhances oskar translation in the Drosophila ovary [5].

Other interactions of aub

• P repression by P strains whose repressive capacities are not linked to the presence of P copies at 1A were previously found to be insensitive to Su(var)205; here, we show that they are also insensitive to aubergine mutations [6].
• We used GFP-tagged versions of Vasa and Aubergine to characterize and track nuage particles and polar granules in live preparations of ovaries and embryos [10].

References