G3 Genes Genomes Genetics· 2026Q2
Conditional AGO Knockout Reveals Tissue-Specific Requirements of miRNA Activity in C. elegans
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- Q2SCImago
- 2026year
Short summary
A conditional knockout system in C. elegans reveals that Argonaute (AGO) depletion in specific tissues causes distinct developmental defects, with intestine, pharynx, and hypodermis showing arrest, and neurons/muscles affecting locomotion and associated functions.
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Key points
- A conditional tissue-specific AGO knockout system was established in C. elegans.
- AGO depletion in the intestine, pharynx, and hypodermis caused developmental arrest.
- Neuronal and muscle-specific AGO depletion impaired locomotion and associated phenotypes.
- Loss of selected miRNAs only partially mimicked AGO-depletion phenotypes.
- Muscle-specific miRNA re-expression rescued locomotion defects in compound miRNA mutants.
AI-generated from the title and abstract; the full text is not read.
Abstract
MicroRNAs (miRNAs) are essential for worm development, yet their roles remain unclear in most tissues. Here, we established a tissue-specific Argonaute (AGO) knockout system in Caenorhabditis elegans using conditional deletion of alg-1 in an alg-2 mutant background. Tissue-restricted loss of AGO revealed distinct developmental and tissue-specific phenotypes. AGO depletion in the intestine, pharynx, and hypodermis caused developmental arrest and tissue-specific defects, whereas neuronal and muscle-specific AGO depletion impaired locomotion and affected neuronal or muscle-associated phenotypes. Moreover, combined loss of selected tissue-expressed miRNAs only partially recapitulated the corresponding AGO-depletion phenotypes. Muscle-specific re-expression of selected miRNAs rescued the locomotion defect of the compound miRNA mutant. This study establishes a platform for dissecting tissue-specific miRNA functions during animal development.
The authors' abstract, as published at the source. G3 Genes Genomes Genetics, 2026 · DOI ↗
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