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Published on: December 8, 2021
Male germ cells express abundant endogenous siRNAs
Rui Song1, Grant W Hennig, Qiuxia Wu
1Department of Physiology and Cell Biology, University of Nevada School of Medicine, Reno, NV 89557, USA.
Abstract:
In mammals, endogenous siRNAs (endo-siRNAs) have only been reported in murine oocytes and embryonic stem cells. Here, we show that murine spermatogenic cells express numerous endo-siRNAs, which are likely to be derived from naturally occurring double-stranded RNA (dsRNA) precursors. The biogenesis of these testicular endo-siRNAs is DROSHA independent, but DICER dependent. These male germ cell endo-siRNAs can potentially target hundreds of transcripts or thousands of DNA regions in the genome. Overall, our work has unveiled another hidden layer of regulation imposed by small noncoding RNAs during male germ cell development.
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