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Student Authors
Bo W. HanUMass Chan Affiliations
Department of Biochemistry and Molecular PharmacologyRNA Therapeutics Institute
Document Type
Journal ArticlePublication Date
2014-08-18
Metadata
Show full item recordAbstract
PIWI-interacting RNAs (piRNAs) are single-stranded, 23–36 nucleotide (nt) RNAs that act as guides for an animal-specific class of Argonaute proteins, the PIWI proteins. The first piRNAs — derived from the Suppressor of Stellate locus in Drosophila melanogaster testes — were discovered in 2001. Although the authors noted the larger size of those ‘rasiRNAs’ (repeat-associated siRNAs), piRNAs were not recognized until 2006 as a distinct class of small silencing RNAs that derive from single-stranded, rather than double-stranded RNA (dsRNA), precursors. It was their association with PIWI, but not AGO, proteins and their independence from Dicer — the RNase III enzyme that cleaves dsRNAs to release small interfering RNAs (siRNAs) — that finally distinguished piRNAs from siRNAs. Moreover, while siRNAs are expressed ubiquitously, piRNAs are predominantly found in animal gonads and are thought to be indispensable for fertility.Source
Curr Biol. 2014 Aug 18;24(16):R730-3. doi: 10.1016/j.cub.2014.07.037.Link to article on publisher's site
DOI
10.1016/j.cub.2014.07.037Permanent Link to this Item
http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.14038/33507PubMed ID
25137579Related Resources
ae974a485f413a2113503eed53cd6c53
10.1016/j.cub.2014.07.037