bioRxiv (Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory)
YTHDC2 Is Essential for Pachytene Progression and Prevents Aberrant Microtubule-Driven Telomere Clustering in Male Meiosis
April 2021 • Rong Liu, Seth D. Kasowitz, David Homolka, N. Adrian Leu, Jordan T. Shaked, Gordon Ruthel, Devanshi Jain, Scott Keeney, Mengcheng Luo, Ramesh S. Pill…
SUMMARY Mechanisms driving the prolonged meiotic prophase I are poorly understood. The RNA helicase YTHDC2 is critical for mitosis to meiosis transition, as YTHDC2-deficient mouse germ cells initiate meiosis but arrest with mixed characteristics of mitotic and meiotic cell types. However, YTHDC2 is also highly expressed in normal pachytene cells. Here we identify an essential role for YTHDC2 in meiotic progression. Specifically, we find that YTHDC2 deficiency causes microtubule-dependent telomere clustering and ap…