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ORIGINAL RESEARCH article

Front. Cell Dev. Biol.
Sec. Evolutionary Developmental Biology
Volume 12 - 2024 | doi: 10.3389/fcell.2024.1481881

Embryonic piRNAs target horizontally transferred vertebrate transposons in assassin bugs

Provisionally accepted
Tarcisio F. Brito Tarcisio F. Brito 1Maira Arruda Cardoso Maira Arruda Cardoso 1Nazerke Atinbayeva Nazerke Atinbayeva 2Ingrid Alexandre de Abreu Brito Ingrid Alexandre de Abreu Brito 1Lucas Amaro da Costa Lucas Amaro da Costa 1Nicola Iovino Nicola Iovino 2Attilio Pane Attilio Pane 1*
  • 1 Federal University of Rio de Janeiro, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
  • 2 Max Planck Institute for Immunobiology and Epigenetics, Freiburg, Hesse, Germany

The final, formatted version of the article will be published soon.

    Piwi proteins and the associated Piwi-interacting RNAs (piRNAs) coordinate a surveillance system that protects the animal genome from DNA damage induced by transposable element (TE) mobilization. While the pathway has been described in detail in the fruit fly Drosophila melanogaster, much less is known in more basal insects. Here, we investigated the adaptation of the piRNA pathway to horizontally transferred transposons (HTTs) in the assassin bug Rhodnius prolixus, a primary vector of Chagas disease. Rhodnius acquired specific classes of HTTs by feeding on bats, opossums and squirrel monkeys. By analyzing the temporal dynamics of piRNA cluster expression and piRNA production during critical stages of Rhodnius development, we show that peak levels of ~28 nt long piRNAs correlate with reduced HTT and resident TE expression primarily during embryogenesis. Strikingly, while resident TEs piRNAs seem to engage in a typical ping-pong amplification mechanism, sense and antisense HTT piRNAs instead overlap by ~20 nt or do not display ping-pong signatures. These features are explained at least in part by the low number of HTT copies inserted into the piRNA clusters and might point to a non-canonical mechanism of biogenesis. Our data reveal that the piRNA, but not the siRNA pathway, responded to HTTs that were recently transferred from vertebrate tetrapods to a hematophagous insect of medical relevance.

    Keywords: Rhodnius, HTT, piRNA pathway, Transposon, siRNA

    Received: 10 Sep 2024; Accepted: 05 Nov 2024.

    Copyright: © 2024 Brito, Arruda Cardoso, Atinbayeva, Alexandre de Abreu Brito, Amaro da Costa, Iovino and Pane. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.

    * Correspondence: Attilio Pane, Federal University of Rio de Janeiro, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil

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