A cytoplasmic Argonaute protein promotes the inheritance of RNAi

RNAi-elicited gene silencing is heritable and can persist for multiple generations after its initial induction in C. elegans. However, the mechanism by which parental-acquired trait-specific information from RNAi is inherited by the progenies is not fully understood. Here, we identified a cytoplasmic Argonaute protein, WAGO-4, necessary for the inheritance of RNAi. WAGO-4 exhibits asymmetrical translocation to the germline during early embryogenesis, accumulates at the perinuclear foci in the germline, and is required for the inheritance of exogenous RNAi targeting both germline- and soma-expressed genes. WAGO-4 binds to 22G-RNA and its mRNA targets. Interestingly, WAGO-4-associated endogenous 22G-RNA targets the same cohort of germline genes as CSR-1 and similarly contains untemplated addition of uracil at the 39 ends. The poly(U) polymerase CDE-1 is required for the untemplated polyuridylation of WAGO-4-associated 22G-RNAs and inheritance of RNAi. Therefore, we conclude that cytoplasmic Argonaute proteins also promote the inheritance of RNAi in addition to the nuclear RNAi pathway.