PT  - JOURNAL ARTICLE
AU  - Kelly, W.G.
AU  - Fire, A.
TI  - Chromatin silencing and the maintenance of a functional germline in Caenorhabditis elegans
DP  - 1998 Jul 01
TA  - Development
PG  - 2451--2456
VI  - 125
IP  - 13
4099  - http://dev.biologists.org/content/125/13/2451.short
4100  - http://dev.biologists.org/content/125/13/2451.full
SO  - Development1998 Jul 01; 125
AB  - The germline of the nematode Caenorhabditis elegans exhibits a remarkable ability to specifically silence transgenic DNA. We have shown that this silencing mechanism is disrupted in animals mutant for the maternal effect sterile genes mes-2, mes-3, mes-4 and mes-6. The proteins encoded by mes-2 and mes-6 have been shown to be related to the Polycomb Group of transcriptional repressors (Holdeman, R., Nehrt, S. and Strome, S. (1998). Development 125, 2457–2467; Korf, I., Fan, F. and Strome, S. (1998). Development 125, 2469–2478). These results suggest that a genetic silencing process is essential for sustained germline function, and that this silencing is mediated, at least in part, by Polycomb Group proteins.