The mechanism of transcription protection in somatic cells has been discovered in the fruit fly D. melanogaster, a model commonly used in embryonic cell development to discover universal genes and molecular mechanisms. "Most of the processes described in Drosophila can be extrapolated to other organisms. Given that the transcriptional repression in germ cells is a general characteristic of all the organisms in which it has been studied, we propose that the antagonistic mechanism that protects is also universal", explains Casanova.

In the 1960s, Drosophila was the model in which researchers described a phenotype named pole hole. Embryos, that did not survive, showed a cavity in one of the poles of the egg in which cells were lacking. "It was thought that this was a problem related to the germ line but the cause was unknown. We now know that in the absence of the protective mechanism somatic cells under the influence of germ cells do not transcribe well and die", says Casanova.

irbbarcelona/ and embo