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Horizontal and vertical transmission of transgenerational memories via the Cer1 transposon

View ORCID ProfileRebecca S. Moore, View ORCID ProfileRachel Kaletsky, View ORCID ProfileChen Lesnik, Vanessa Cota, Edith Blackman, View ORCID ProfileLance R. Parsons, View ORCID ProfileZemer Gitai, View ORCID ProfileColeen T. Murphy
doi: https://doi.org/10.1101/2020.12.28.424563
Rebecca S. Moore
1Department of Molecular Biology, Princeton University, Princeton NJ 08544
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Rachel Kaletsky
1Department of Molecular Biology, Princeton University, Princeton NJ 08544
2LSI Genomics, Princeton University, Princeton NJ 08544
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Chen Lesnik
1Department of Molecular Biology, Princeton University, Princeton NJ 08544
2LSI Genomics, Princeton University, Princeton NJ 08544
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Vanessa Cota
1Department of Molecular Biology, Princeton University, Princeton NJ 08544
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Edith Blackman
1Department of Molecular Biology, Princeton University, Princeton NJ 08544
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Lance R. Parsons
2LSI Genomics, Princeton University, Princeton NJ 08544
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Zemer Gitai
1Department of Molecular Biology, Princeton University, Princeton NJ 08544
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Coleen T. Murphy
1Department of Molecular Biology, Princeton University, Princeton NJ 08544
2LSI Genomics, Princeton University, Princeton NJ 08544
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  • ORCID record for Coleen T. Murphy
  • For correspondence: ctmurphy@princeton.edu
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Abstract

Animals face both external and internal dangers: pathogens threaten from the environment, and unstable genomic elements threaten from within. Previously, we discovered that C. elegans protects itself from pathogens by “reading” bacterial small RNAs and using this information to both induce avoidance and transmit memories for several generations. Here we found that these memories can be transferred to naïve animals via Cer1 retrotransposon-encoded capsids. Cer1 functions at the step of transmission of information from the germline to neurons, and is required for C. elegans’ learned avoidance ability and for mothers to pass this information on to progeny. The presence of the Cer1 retrotransposon in wild C. elegans strains correlates with the ability to learn and inherit small RNA-induced pathogen avoidance. Together, these results suggest that C. elegans has co-opted a potentially dangerous retrotransposon to instead protect itself and its progeny from a common pathogen through its inter-tissue signaling ability, hijacking this genomic element for its own adaptive immunity benefit.

Competing Interest Statement

The authors have declared no competing interest.

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The copyright holder for this preprint is the author/funder, who has granted bioRxiv a license to display the preprint in perpetuity. All rights reserved. No reuse allowed without permission.
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Posted December 29, 2020.
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Horizontal and vertical transmission of transgenerational memories via the Cer1 transposon
Rebecca S. Moore, Rachel Kaletsky, Chen Lesnik, Vanessa Cota, Edith Blackman, Lance R. Parsons, Zemer Gitai, Coleen T. Murphy
bioRxiv 2020.12.28.424563; doi: https://doi.org/10.1101/2020.12.28.424563
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Horizontal and vertical transmission of transgenerational memories via the Cer1 transposon
Rebecca S. Moore, Rachel Kaletsky, Chen Lesnik, Vanessa Cota, Edith Blackman, Lance R. Parsons, Zemer Gitai, Coleen T. Murphy
bioRxiv 2020.12.28.424563; doi: https://doi.org/10.1101/2020.12.28.424563

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