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Emerging from the clouds: Vasa helicase sheds light on piRNA amplification
1Department of Molecular Genetics, University of Toronto, Toronto, ON M5S 1A8, Canada.
Developmental Cell
|June 25, 2014
Abstract:
Reporting in a recent study in Cell, Xiol and colleagues (2014) identify the conserved DEAD box helicase Vasa as a platform for secondary Piwi-interacting RNA (piRNA) biogenesis in the insect nuage. This study represents a substantial breakthrough in understanding the mechanism and location of piRNA amplification by the "ping-pong" cycle.
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