Polycomb Group (PcG) and Trithorax Group (TrxG) proteins are key epigenetic regulators of global transcription programs. Their antagonistic chromatin-modifying activities modulate the expression of many genes and affect many biological processes. Here we report that heterozygous mutations in two core subunits of Polycomb Repressive Complex 2 (PRC2), the histone H3 lysine 27 (H3K27)-specific methyltransferase E(Z) and its partner, the H3 binding protein ESC, increase longevity and reduce adult levels of trimethylated H3K27 (H3K27me3). Mutations in trithorax (trx), a well known antagonist of Polycomb silencing, elevate the H3K27me3 level of E(z) mutants and suppress their increased longevity. Like many long-lived mutants, E(z) and esc mutants exhibit increased resistance to oxidative stress and starvation, and these phenotypes are also suppressed by trx mutations. This suppression strongly suggests that both the longevity and stress resistance phenotypes of PRC2 mutants are specifically due to their reduced levels of H3K27me3 and the consequent perturbation of Polycomb silencing. Consistent with this, long-lived E(z) mutants exhibit derepression of Abd-B, a well-characterized direct target of Polycomb silencing, and Odc1, a putative direct target implicated in stress resistance. These findings establish a role for PRC2 and TRX in the modulation of organismal longevity and stress resistance and indicate that moderate perturbation of Polycomb silencing can increase longevity.aging | epigenetics | histone methyltransferase | Polycomb silencing

The exosome complex plays important roles in RNA processing and turnover. Despite significant mechanistic insight into exosome function, we still lack a basic understanding of the subcellular locales where exosome complex biogenesis and function occurs. Here, we employ a panel of Drosophila S2 stable cell lines expressing epitope-tagged exosome subunits to examine the subcellular distribution of exosome complex components. We show that tagged Drosophila exosome subunits incorporate into complexes that recover endogenous nuclear and cytoplasmic exosome subunits. Immunolocalization analyses demonstrate that subsets of both epitope-tagged and endogenous exosome subunits are enriched in discrete subcellular compartments. In particular, dRrp4, dRrp42, dRrp46, and dCsl4 are enriched in cytoplasmic foci. Although dRrp4 and dRrp42 sometimes colocalize with dCsl4, these subunits are predominantly found in distinct cytoplasmic compartments. Strikingly, dRrp44/dDis3 and dRrp41/dSki6 colocalize with the nuclear lamina and often exhibit a restricted and asymmetric distribution at the nuclear periphery. Taken together, these observations indicate that individual exosome subunits have distinct localizations in vivo. These different distribution patterns presumably reflect distinct exosome subunit subcomplexes with correspondingly specialized functions.

The RNA processing exosome complex was originally defined as an evolutionarily conserved multisubunit complex of ribonucleases responsible for the processing and/or turnover of stable RNAs. The exosome complex is also involved in the surveillance of mRNAs in both the nucleus and the cytoplasm, including nonsense-mediated decay (NMD) targets. The detailed mechanisms for how individual exosome subunits participate in each of these RNA metabolic pathways remains unclear. Here, we use RNAi to deplete exosome subunits, the exonucleases Rrp6 and Dis3, and an exosome cofactor in Drosophila melanogaster S2 tissue culture cells and assay the effects on global mRNA levels using gene expression microarrays. Consistent with the RNA degradative activities ascribed to the exosome, most mRNAs are increased. Notably, these stabilized mRNAs possess 39 untranslated regions that are longer than the representative transcriptomic average. Moreover, our results reveal substantial differences in the pools of affected mRNAs for each depleted subunit. For example, ;25% of the affected transcripts in Rrp6 depleted cells represent NMD substrates. While the affected mRNAs were dissimilar, they encode proteins that function in similar cellular pathways. We conclude that individual exosome subunits are largely functionally independent at the transcript level, but are interdependent on a transcriptomic level.