Zanetti, Simone Grinschgl, Sonja Meola, Marco Belfiore, Marco Rey, Samantha Bianchi, Pamela Puoti, Alessandro 2012-05-25 Post-transcriptional control regulates many aspects of germline development in the Caenorhabditis elegans hermaphrodite. This nematode switches from spermatogenesis to oogenesis and is, therefore, capable of self-fertilization. This sperm-oocyte switch requires 3′ UTR-mediated repression of the fem-3 mRNA. Loss of fem-3 repression results in continuous spermatogenesis in hermaphrodites. Although several factors regulating fem-3 have been identified, little is known about the mechanisms that control fem-3. Here, we investigate the steady-state levels of the fem-3 transcript and the expression pattern of its protein product. We show that FEM-3 is exclusively present in germ cells that are committed to spermatogenesis. We found that in fem-3(gf)/+ heterozygotes, mutant fem-3 gain-of-function transcripts are more abundant than their wild-type counterpart. Furthermore, we show that the penetrance of the fem-3(gf) allele correlates with inefficient FBF binding and extended poly(A) tail size of fem-3 mRNAs. Finally, we show that wild-type and gain-of-function mutated fem-3 mRNAs associate equally well with polyribosomes. We propose that the fem-3 mRNA is regulated through stabilization rather than through translatability. application/pdf https://folia.unifr.ch/global/documents/302550 https://folia.unifr.ch/documents/302550/files/puo_sos.pdf eng info:eu-repo/semantics/altIdentifier/doi/10.1261/rna.031237.111 info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess License undefined RNA. - 2012, vol. 18, no. 7, p. 1385-1394 fem-3 Caenorhabditis elegans sex determination germline RNA info:eu-repo/classification/udc/57 The sperm-oocyte switch in the C. elegans hermaphrodite is controlled through steady-state levels of the fem-3 mRNA http://purl.org/coar/resource_type/c_6501