Piwi

Piwi domain
Structure of the Pyrococcus furiosus Argonaute protein.[1]
Identifiers
SymbolPiwi
PfamPF02171
InterProIPR003165
PROSITEPS50822
CDDcd02826
Available protein structures:
Pfam  structures / ECOD  
PDBRCSB PDB; PDBe; PDBj
PDBsumstructure summary
PDB1u04​, 1w9h​, 1ytu​, 1yvu​, 1z25​, 1z26​, 2bgg​, 2f8s​, 2f8t​, 2nub​, 2w42​
The piwi domain of an argonaute protein with bound siRNA, components of the RNA-induced silencing complex that mediates gene silencing by RNA interference.
All human Piwi proteins and argonaute proteins have the same RNA binding domains, PAZ and Piwi.[2]
Piwi-piRNA interactions: Within the nucleus, this pathway is involved in DNA methylation (A), histone methylation of H3K9 through interactions with heterochromatin protein 1 (HP1) and H3K9 histone methyltransferase (B). The Piwi-piRNA pathway also interacts with the elF translational initiator (C).[3]

Piwi (or PIWI) genes were identified as regulatory proteins responsible for stem cell and germ cell differentiation.[4] Piwi is an abbreviation of P-element Induced WImpy testis[a] in Drosophila.[6] Piwi proteins are highly conserved RNA-binding proteins and are present in both plants and animals.[7] Piwi proteins belong to the Argonaute/Piwi family and have been classified as nuclear proteins. Studies on Drosophila have also indicated that Piwi proteins have no slicer activity conferred by the presence of the Piwi domain.[8] In addition, Piwi associates with heterochromatin protein 1, an epigenetic modifier, and piRNA-complementary sequences. These are indications of the role Piwi plays in epigenetic regulation. Piwi proteins are also thought to control the biogenesis of piRNA as many Piwi-like proteins contain slicer activity which would allow Piwi proteins to process precursor piRNA into mature piRNA.

  1. ^ Rivas FV, Tolia NH, Song JJ, et al. (April 2005). "Purified Argonaute2 and an siRNA form recombinant human RISC". Nat. Struct. Mol. Biol. 12 (4): 340–9. doi:10.1038/nsmb918. PMID 15800637. S2CID 2021813.
  2. ^ "Uniprot: The Universal knowledge database". Nucleic Acids Research. 45 (D1): D158–D169. 2017. doi:10.1093/nar/gkw1099. PMC 5210571. PMID 27899622.
  3. ^ Lindse K (2013). "Piwi-RNAs, the Defenders of the Genome". {{cite journal}}: Cite journal requires |journal= (help)
  4. ^ Cox DN, Chao A, Lin H (2000). "piwi encodes a nucleoplasmic factor whose activity modulates the number and division rate of germline stem cells". Development. 127 (3): 503–14. doi:10.1242/dev.127.3.503. PMID 10631171.
  5. ^ Ross RJ, Weiner MM, Lin H (2014). "PIWI proteins and PIWI-interacting RNAs in the soma". Nature. 505 (7483): 353–359. Bibcode:2014Natur.505..353R. doi:10.1038/nature12987. PMC 4265809. PMID 24429634.
  6. ^ Lin H, Spradling AC (1997). "A novel group of pumilio mutations affects the asymmetric division of germline stem cells in the Drosophila ovary". Development. 124 (12): 2463–2476. doi:10.1242/dev.124.12.2463. PMID 9199372.
  7. ^ Cox DN, Chao A, Baker J, Chang L, Qiao D, Lin H (1998). "A novel class of evolutionarily conserved genes defined by piwi are essential for stem cell self-renewal". Genes Dev. 12 (23): 3715–27. doi:10.1101/gad.12.23.3715. PMC 317255. PMID 9851978.
  8. ^ Darricarrere N, Liu N, Watanabe T, Lin H (2013). "Function of Piwi, a nuclear Piwi/Argonaute protein, is independent of its slicer activity". Proc Natl Acad Sci USA. 110 (6): 1297–1302. Bibcode:2013PNAS..110.1297D. doi:10.1073/pnas.1213283110. PMC 3557079. PMID 23297219.


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