A transposon expression burst accompanies the activation of Y-chromosome fertility genes during Drosophila spermatogenesis

Transposable elements (TEs) must replicate in germline cells to pass novel insertions to offspring. In Drosophila melanogaster ovaries, TEs can exploit specific developmental windows of opportunity to evade host silencing and increase their copy numbers. However, TE activity and host silencing in the distinct cell types of Drosophila testis are not well understood. Here, we reanalyze publicly available single-cell RNA-seq datasets to quantify TE expression in the distinct cell types of the Drosophila testis. We develop a method for identification of TE and host gene expression modules and find that a distinct population of early spermatocytes expresses a large number of TEs at much higher levels than other germline and somatic components of the testes. This burst of TE expression coincides with the activation of Y chromosome fertility factors and spermatocyte-specific transcriptional regulators, as well as downregulation of many components of the piRNA pathway. The TEs expressed by this cell population are specifically enriched on the Y chromosome and depleted on the X chromosome, relative to other active TEs. These data suggest that some TEs may achieve high insertional activity in males by exploiting a window of opportunity for mobilization created by the activation of spermatocyte-specific and Y chromosome-specific transcriptional programs. In this study, Lawlor et al. show that transposons on the Drosophila Y chromosome have evolved to exploit a specific stage of spermatogenesis when the Y chromosome is decondensed and the piRNA pathway is downregulated.

Automated summary

By reanalyzing single-cell RNA-seq datasets of Drosophila testis, researchers found that a distinct population of early spermatocytes expresses a large number of transposable elements (TEs) at much higher levels than other cell types, potentially achieving high insertional activity by exploiting the activation of Y chromosome-specific transcriptional programs.