Mighty Piwis defend the germline against genome intruders.
basic_science · Level V
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- Record sourced from PubMed, PMID 17418784.
- Also identified by PMC identifier 4122227.
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Abstract
Piwis are a germline-specific subclass of the Argonaute family of RNA interference (RNAi) effector proteins that are associated with a recently discovered group of small RNAs (piRNAs). Recent studies in Drosophila and zebrafish directly implicate Piwi proteins in piRNA biogenesis to maintain transposon silencing in the germline genome (Brennecke et al., 2007; Gunawardane et al., 2007; Houwing et al., 2007). This function may be conserved in mice as loss of Miwi2, a mouse Piwi homolog, leads to germline stem cell and meiotic defects correlated with increased transposon activity (Carmell et al., 2007).
Medical subject headings
- DNA Transposable Elements
- Genome
- Germ Cells
- Proteins
- RNA Interference