Masaki Shirayama

TL;DR: It is shown that the Piwi Argonaute PRG-1 and its genomically encoded piRNA cofactors initiate permanent silencing, and maintenance depends on chromatin factors and the WAGOArgonaute pathway.

TL;DR: Deep-sequencing and genetic approaches are combined to explore the biogenesis and function of endo-siRNAs in C. elegans and show that, in the germline, one system is dependent on worm-specific AGOs, including WAGO-1, which localizes to germline nuage structures called P granules.

TL;DR: These findings support a model in which CSR-1 complexes target protein-coding domains to promote their proper organization within the holocentric chromosomes of C. elegans.

TL;DR: It is shown that PRG-1 is required to initiate, but not to maintain, silencing of transgenes engineered to contain complementarity to endogenous 21U-RNAs, a model in which C. elegans piRNAs utilize their enormous repertoire of targeting capacity to scan the germline transcriptome for foreign sequences, while endogenous germline-expressed genes are actively protected from piRNA-induced silencing.

TL;DR: These findings reveal a surprisingly high frequency of HR-mediated gene conversion, making it possible to rapidly and precisely edit the C. elegans genome both with and without the use of co-inserted marker genes.