Journal
JOURNAL OF EUKARYOTIC MICROBIOLOGY
Volume 69, Issue 5, Pages -Publisher
WILEY
DOI: 10.1111/jeu.12914
Keywords
ciliate; genome rearrangement; RNA; RNA interference; transgenerational inheritance
Categories
Funding
- DFG [SI1397/3-1]
Ask authors/readers for more resources
The translation introduces the concept of epigenetics and its role in different organisms. Mammalian research focuses on cytosine methylation and histone modification, while ciliate research focuses on small RNA-mediated effects. Ciliates control the DNA content of sexual progeny through transgenerational RNA effects, suggesting that epigenetics plays an important role in controlling the genetic process of sexual macronuclei.
The term epigenetics is used for any layer of genetic information aside from the DNA base-sequence information. Mammalian epigenetic research increased our understanding of chromatin dynamics in terms of cytosine methylation and histone modification during differentiation, aging, and disease. Instead, ciliate epigenetics focused more on small RNA-mediated effects. On the one hand, these do concern the transport of RNA from parental to daughter nuclei, representing a regulated transfer of epigenetic information across generations. On the other hand, studies of Paramecium, Tetrahymena, Oxytricha, and Stylonychia revealed an almost unique function of transgenerational RNA. Rather than solely controlling chromatin dynamics, they control sexual progeny's DNA content quantitatively and qualitatively. Thus epigenetics seems to control genetics, at least genetics of the vegetative macronucleus. This combination offers ciliates, in particular, an epigenetically controlled genetic variability. This review summarizes the epigenetic mechanisms that contribute to macronuclear heterogeneity and relates these to nuclear dimorphism. This system's adaptive and evolutionary possibilities raise the critical question of whether such a system is limited to unicellular organisms or binuclear cells. We discuss here the relevance of ciliate genetics and epigenetics to multicellular organisms.
Authors
I am an author on this paper
Click your name to claim this paper and add it to your profile.
Reviews
Recommended
No Data Available