| First Author | Hildebrandt MR | Year | 2019 |
| Journal | Dev Biol | Volume | 455 |
| Issue | 2 | Pages | 420-433 |
| PubMed ID | 31330130 | Mgi Jnum | J:282329 |
| Mgi Id | MGI:6380558 | Doi | 10.1016/j.ydbio.2019.07.014 |
| Citation | Hildebrandt MR, et al. (2019) Cytoplasmic aggregation of DDX1 in developing embryos: Early embryonic lethality associated with Ddx1 knockout. Dev Biol 455(2):420-433 |
| abstractText | Temporally-regulated maternal RNA translation is essential for embryonic development, with defective degradation resulting in stalled 2-cell embryos. We show that DDX1, a DEAD box protein implicated in RNA transport, may be a key regulator of maternal RNA utilization. DDX1 protein localizes exclusively to cytoplasmic granules in both oocytes and early stage mouse embryos, with DDX1 requiring RNA for retention at these sites. Homozygous knockout of Ddx1 causes stalling of mouse embryos at the 2-4cell stages. These results suggest a maternal RNA-dependent role for DDX1 in the progression of embryos past the 2-4cell stage. The change in appearance of DDX1-containing granules in developing embryos further supports a role in temporally-regulated degradation of RNAs. We carried out RNA-immunoprecipitations (RNA-IPs) to identify mRNAs bound to DDX1 in 2-cell embryos, focusing on 16 maternal genes previously shown to be essential for embryonic development past the 1- to 2-cell stages. Five of these RNAs were preferentially bound by DDX1: Ago2, Zar1, Tle6, Floped and Tif1alpha. We propose that DDX1 controls access to subsets of key maternal RNAs required for early embryonic development. |
