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Updated: Dec 22, 2025

Slide Preparation Method to Preserve Three-dimensional Chromatin Architecture of Testicular Germ Cells
Published on: January 10, 2014
TEX15 associates with MILI and silences transposable elements in male germ cells
Fang Yang1, Yemin Lan2, Radha Raman Pandey3
1Department of Biomedical Sciences, University of Pennsylvania School of Veterinary Medicine, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania 19104, USA.
Abstract:
DNA methylation is a major silencing mechanism of transposable elements (TEs). Here we report that TEX15, a testis-specific protein, is required for TE silencing. TEX15 is expressed in embryonic germ cells and functions during genome-wide epigenetic reprogramming. The Tex15 mutant exhibits DNA hypomethylation in TEs at a level similar to Mili and Dnmt3c but not Miwi2 mutants. TEX15 is associated with MILI in testis. As loss of Tex15 causes TE desilencing with intact piRNA production, our results identify TEX15 as a new essential epigenetic regulator that may function as a nuclear effector of MILI to silence TEs by DNA methylation.
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