A novel class of small RNAs in mouse spermatogenic cells
- Shane T. Grivna1,2,4,
- Ergin Beyret1,4,
- Zhong Wang3, and
- Haifan Lin1,5
- 1 Department of Cell Biology, Duke University, Durham, North Carolina 27710, USA;
- 2 Department of Pharmacology and Molecular Cancer Biology, Duke University, Durham, North Carolina 27710, USA;
- 3 Institute for Genome Sciences and Policy, Duke University, Durham, North Carolina 27710, USA
- 4
↵4 These authors contributed equally to this work.
Abstract
Small noncoding RNAs, including small interfering RNAs (siRNAs) and micro RNAs (miRNAs) of ∼21 nucleotides (nt) in length, have emerged as potent regulators of gene expression at both transcriptional and post-transcriptional levels in diverse organisms. Here we report the identification of a novel class of small RNAs in the mouse male germline termed piwi-interacting RNAs (piRNAs). piRNAs are ∼30 nt in length. They are expressed during spermatogenesis, mostly in spermatids. piRNAs are associated with MIWI, a spermatogenesis-specific PIWI subfamily member of the Argonaute protein family, and depend on MIWI for their biogenesis and/or stability. Furthermore, a subpopulation of piRNAs are associated with polysomes, suggesting their potential role in translational regulation.
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Footnotes
- 5
↵5 Corresponding author.
↵5 E-MAIL h.lin{at}cellbio.duke.edu; FAX (919) 684-5481.
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Supplemental material is available at http://www.genesdev.org.
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Article published online ahead of print. Article and publication date are online at http://www.genesdev.org/cgi/doi/10.1101/gad.1434406
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- Received March 27, 2006.
- Accepted May 4, 2006.
- Copyright © 2006, Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press