Transcriptome analysis in mouse early round spermatids deficient in pachytene piRNAs (Miwi+/- and -/-)

In animal germline cells, Piwi-interacting RNAs (piRNAs) silence retrotransposons through post-transcriptional and transcriptional mechanisms. However, little is known, especially in mammals, about the functions of piRNAs beyond retrotransposon suppression1-5. In mammalian spermatocytes, piRNAs are known to be abundantly expressed6-10. Here, we show that a subset of coding and noncoding RNAs in mouse spermatocytes is degraded by the piRNA pathway. By analyzing the germline trasnscriptome of mice deficient in piRNA biogenesis, we identify hundreds of mRNAs as direct targets of piRNAs. Remarkably, the 3'' untranslated region (UTR) of the mRNAs up-regulated in the piRNA pathway mutants are highly enriched with retrotransposon sequenes, implying that these sequences serve as regulatory elements for piRNA-mediated regulation. Furthermore, deficiencies of piRNAs derived from pseudogenes result in increased mRNA levels of their cognate genes, indicating that pseudogenes regulate their functional cognates via piRNAs. Moreover, we identify a large population of testis-enriched long intergenic noncoding RNAs (lincRNAs), some of which are also degraded by the piRNA pathway. Collectively, our results reveal that the piRNA pathway regulates the expression of both mRNAs and lincRNAs in addition to retrotransposon RNAs during meiosis and the key role of retrotransposons and pseudogenes, two major types of genomic sequences, in this regulation by acting as piRNA sources and/or regulatory elements in target RNAs. Overall design: Early round spermatid mRNA profiles of Miwi+/- and -/- were analyzed by deep sequencing, in triplicate, using Illumina HiSeq.

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Watanabe T, Cheng EC, Zhong M, Lin H