C. elegans FOG-1/CPEB and FOG-3/Tob work together to control the oogenesis program

Germ cell sex determination is an ancient cell fate decision, but the molecular regulation of this fundamental decision is poorly understood. In the C. elegans germline, FOG-1 and FOG-3 are the terminal regulators of sperm fate. Here I explore sex determination on a genome wide scale in the C. elegans germline. First, I report on a new dataset of spermatogenic, oogenic, and gender neutral mRNAs in the germline. Second, I incorporate the sperm, oocyte, and maternal transcriptome datasets into this new dataset to characterize these transcripts into oogenic and spermatogenic mRNA programs. Third, I identify 81 FOG-1 associated mRNAs and 722 FOG-3 associated mRNAs. 76 of the FOG-1 associated mRNAs are also FOG-3 associated mRNAs and most of these mRNAs are oogenic program mRNAs. FOG-1 and FOG-3 also co-localize in the germline and co-immunoprecipitate suggesting that FOG-1 and FOG-3 work together. I propose a model in which FOG-1 and FOG-3 are in a complex repressing oogenic mRNAs to specify sperm fate.