4.4 Article

Identification of rfk-1, a Meiotic Driver Undergoing RNA Editing in Neurospora

Journal

GENETICS
Volume 212, Issue 1, Pages 93-110

Publisher

GENETICS SOCIETY AMERICA
DOI: 10.1534/genetics.119.302122

Keywords

Genetics of Sex; meiotic drive; meiotic silencing; RNA editing; spore killing; transmission ratio distortion

Funding

  1. National Science Foundation (NSF) [1615626]
  2. NSF [1715534]
  3. University of Missouri Research Board and Research Council
  4. European Research Council grant (under the program H2020, ERC-2014-CoG) [648143]
  5. Swedish Research Council
  6. [P01 GM-068087]
  7. Div Of Molecular and Cellular Bioscience
  8. Direct For Biological Sciences [1715534, 1615626] Funding Source: National Science Foundation
  9. European Research Council (ERC) [648143] Funding Source: European Research Council (ERC)

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Sk-2 is a meiotic drive element that was discovered in wild populations of Neurospora fungi over 40 years ago. While early studies quickly determined that Sk-2 transmits itself through sexual reproduction in a biased manner via spore killing, the genetic factors responsible for this phenomenon have remained mostly unknown. Here, we identify and characterize rfk-1, a gene required for Sk-2-based spore killing. The rfk-1 gene contains four exons, three introns, and two stop codons, the first of which undergoes RNA editing to a tryptophan codon during sexual development. Translation of an unedited rfk-1 transcript in vegetative tissue is expected to produce a 102-amino acid protein, whereas translation of an edited rfk-1 transcript in sexual tissue is expected to produce a protein with 130 amino acids. These findings indicate that unedited and edited rfk-1 transcripts exist and that these transcripts could have different roles with respect to the mechanism of meiotic drive by spore killing. Regardless of RNA editing, spore killing only succeeds if rfk-1 transcripts avoid silencing caused by a genome defense process called meiotic silencing by unpaired DNA (MSUD). We show that rfk-1's MSUD avoidance mechanism is linked to the genomic landscape surrounding the rfk-1 gene, which is located near the Sk-2 border on the right arm of chromosome III. In addition to demonstrating that the location of rfk-1 is critical to spore-killing success, our results add to accumulating evidence that MSUD helps protect Neurospora genomes from complex meiotic drive elements.

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