A Drosophila melanogaster ortholog of pentatricopeptide repeat domain 3 ( PTCD3 ) is essential for development

Eisuke Imura; Sora Enya; Ryusuke Niwa

doi:10.17912/micropub.biology.000999

A Drosophila melanogaster ortholog of pentatricopeptide repeat domain 3 ( PTCD3 ) is essential for development

MicroPubl Biol. 2023 Nov 24:2023:10.17912/micropub.biology.000999. doi: 10.17912/micropub.biology.000999. eCollection 2023.

Authors

Eisuke Imura¹, Sora Enya¹, Ryusuke Niwa²

Affiliations

¹ Graduate School of Life and Environmental Sciences, University of Tsukuba, Tsukuba, Ibaraki, Japan.
² Life Science Center for Survival Dynamics, Tsukuba Advanced Research Alliance (TARA), University of Tsukuba, Tsukuba, Ibaraki, Japan.

Abstract

Mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) replication and transcription are essential for cellular energy metabolism. It has been suggested that pentatricopeptide repeat (PPR) proteins regulate various aspects of mitochondrial RNA metabolism, including transcription, processing, maturation and stability, and protein synthesis. However, an in vivo requirement of PPR proteins in RNA metabolism has not been fully examined. In this paper, we focus on the Drosophila melanogaster homolog of PPR domain 3 ( PTCD3 ), encoded by the CG4679 gene. A loss-of-function mutant of PTCD3 is lethal during the second instar. In addition, mutants exhibit reduced expression of a group of genes related to mitochondrial function and ribosome biogenesis, and conversely, they show up-regulated expression of neuronal development-related genes. These results suggest that PTCD3 has important functions in relation to mtDNA and is essential for development.

Grants and funding

This work was supported by the Advancing Researcher Experience Program of the University of Tsukuba to E.I. and JSPS KAKENHI (Grant Numbers 17J00218 to E.I., 12J01444 to S.E., and 25712010 to R.N.).