A Pandas complex adapted for piRNA-guided transposon silencing

The repression of transposons by the Piwi-interacting RNA (piRNA) pathway is essential to protect animal germ cells. In Drosophila ovaries, Panoramix (Panx) enforces transcriptional silencing by binding to the target-engaged Piwi-piRNA complex, although the precise mechanisms by which this occur remain elusive. Here, we show that Panx functions together with a germline specific paralogue of a nuclear export factor, dNxf2, and its cofactor dNxt1 (p15) as a ternary complex to suppress transposon expression. Structural and functional analysis demonstrate that dNxf2 plays critical roles in Panx association via its UBA domain, and transposon silencing through binding to transposon transcripts directly. Furthermore, dNxf2 interacts with dNxf1 (TAP), which, unexpectedly, is also required for Panx-mediated silencing. Therefore, we propose that dNxf2 may function as a Pandas (Panoramix-dNxf2 dependent TAP/p15 silencing) complex, which counteracts the canonical RNA exporting machinery (TAP/p15) and restricts transposons to nuclear peripheries.