Conserved generation of short products at piRNA loci.

ABSTRACT:

Background

The piRNA pathway operates in animal germ lines to ensure genome integrity through retrotransposon silencing. The Piwi protein-associated small RNAs (piRNAs) guide Piwi proteins to retrotransposon transcripts, which are degraded and thereby post-transcriptionally silenced through a ping-pong amplification process. Cleavage of the retrotransposon transcript defines at the same time the 5' end of a secondary piRNA that will in turn guide a Piwi protein to a primary piRNA precursor, thereby amplifying primary piRNAs. Although several studies provided evidence that this mechanism is conserved among metazoa, how the process is initiated and what enzymatic activities are responsible for generating the primary and secondary piRNAs are not entirely clear.

Results

Here we

SUBMITTER: Berninger P 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC3037900 | biostudies-literature | 2011 Jan

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature