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¹ Joslin Diabetes Center, Harvard Stem Cell Institute, and ² Department of Pathology, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA 02215
³ Department of Genetics, Yale University School of Medicine, New Haven, CT 06510

Correspondence to T. Keith Blackwell: keith.blackwell{at}joslin.harvard.edu

During oogenesis, numerous messenger RNAs (mRNAs) are maintained in a translationally silenced state. In eukaryotic cells, various translation inhibition and mRNA degradation mechanisms congregate in cytoplasmic processing bodies (P bodies). The P body protein Dhh1 inhibits translation and promotes decapping-mediated mRNA decay together with Pat1 in yeast, and has been implicated in mRNA storage in metazoan oocytes. Here, we have investigated in Caenorhabditis elegans whether Dhh1 and Pat1 generally function together, and how they influence mRNA sequestration during oogenesis. We show that in somatic tissues, the Dhh1 orthologue (CGH-1) forms Pat1 (patr-1)-dependent P bodies that are involved in mRNA decapping. In contrast, during oogenesis, CGH-1 forms patr-1–independent mRNA storage bodies. CGH-1 then associates with translational regulators and a specific set of maternal mRNAs, and prevents those mRNAs from being degraded. Our results identify somatic and germ cell CGH-1 functions that are distinguished by the involvement of PATR-1, and reveal that during oogenesis, numerous translationally regulated mRNAs are specifically protected by a CGH-1–dependent mechanism.

P.R. Boag's present address is Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, Monash University, Melbourne 3800, Australia.

A. Atalay's present address is Biotechnology Institute, Ankara University, Ankara 06500, Turkey.

Abbreviations used in this paper: IP, immunoprecipitate; miRNA, microRNA; P body, processing body; PABP, poly-A–binding protein; RIP-Chip, RNA IP and microarray analysis; RNP, RNA–protein; RT-qPCR, quantitative RT-PCR; SAGE, serial analysis of gene expression; UTR, untranslated region; WT, wild type.

© 2008 Boag et al. This article is distributed under the terms of an Attribution–Noncommercial–Share Alike–No Mirror Sites license for the first six months after the publication date (see http://www.jcb.org/misc/terms.shtml). After six months it is available under a Creative Commons License (Attribution–Noncommercial–Share Alike 3.0 Unported license, as described at http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/3.0/).

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