miwi, a murine homolog of piwi, encodes a cytoplasmic protein essential for spermatogenesis
miwi, a murine homolog of piwi, encodes a cytoplasmic protein essential for spermatogenesis
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DOI：
10.1016/s1534-5807(02)00165-x
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发表时间：
2002-06-01
影响因子：
11.8
通讯作者：
Lin, HF
中科院分区：
文献类型：
--
作者：
Deng, W;Lin, HF
piwi家族基因对于干细胞自我更新、RNA沉默和多种生物体中的翻译调控至关重要。然而，它们在哺乳动物中的功能仍然未被探索。在这里，我们报告的小鼠piwi基因（miwi）的精子发生所必需的克隆。miwi编码在精母细胞和精子细胞中特异性表达的细胞质蛋白。miwi（null）小鼠在圆形精子细胞阶段开始时表现出生精停滞，类似于CREM的表型，CREM是精子发生的主要调节剂。此外，ACT（睾丸CREM激活因子）和CREM靶基因的mRNA在miwi（空）睾丸中下调。而MIWI和CREM不调节彼此的表达，MIWI与ACT和CREM靶基因的mRNA复合。因此，MIWI可能通过调节这些mRNA的稳定性来控制精子发生。
The piwi family genes are crucial for stem cell self-renewal, RNA silencing, and translational regulation in diverse organisms. However, their function in mammals remains unexplored. Here we report the cloning of a murine piwi gene (miwi) essential for spermatogenesis. miwi encodes a cytoplasmic protein specifically expressed in spermatocytes and spermatids. miwi(null) mice display spermatogenic arrest at the beginning of the round spermatid stage, resembling the phenotype of CREM, a master regulator of spermiogenesis. Furthermore, mRNAs of ACT (activator of CREM in testis) and CREM target genes are downregulated in miwi(null) testes. Whereas MIWI and CREM do not regulate each other's expression, MIWI complexes with mRNAs of ACT and CREM target genes. Hence, MIWI may control spermiogenesis by regulating the stability of these mRNAs.