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Updated: Jun 29, 2025

Enhanced Crosslinking Immunoprecipitation eCLIP Method for Efficient Identification of Protein-bound RNA in Mouse Testis
Published on: May 10, 2019
[Research progress of piRNA as a biomarker for male infertility]
1Center of Reproductive Medicine and Prenatal Diagnosis, the First Bethune Hospital of Jilin University, Changchun, Jilin 130021, China. wang_rx@jlu.edu.cn.
Abstract:
piRNA is a class of small non-coding RNA which specifically binds with PIWI protein. It is mainly expressed in germ cells and involved in the regulation of spermatogenesis. The role of piRNA pathway in the regulation of spermatogenesis mainly includes inhibition of transposons, induction of mRNA translation or degradation, and mediation of degradation of Miwi ubiquitination in late-stage sperm cells. With the detection of piRNA in seminal plasma, more attention has been attracted to whether piRNA can be used as a non-invasive molecular biomarker for the evaluation of spermatogenesis. This paper has reviewed recent studies on the mechanism of piRNA pathways mediating spermatogenesis and potential roles of piRNA disorders in the diagnosis and treatment of male infertility.
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