| Literature DB >> 25280102 |
Toshiaki Watanabe1, Haifan Lin2.
Abstract
Piwi proteins and Piwi-interacting RNAs (piRNAs) are essential for gametogenesis, embryogenesis, and stem cell maintenance in animals. Piwi proteins act on transposon RNAs by cleaving the RNAs and by interacting with factors involved in RNA regulation. Additionally, piRNAs generated from transposons and psuedogenes can be used by Piwi proteins to regulate mRNAs at the posttranscriptional level. Here we discuss piRNA biogenesis, recent findings on posttranscriptional regulation of mRNAs by the piRNA pathway, and the potential importance of this posttranscriptional regulation for a variety of biological processes such as gametogenesis, developmental transitions, and sex determination.Entities:
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Year: 2014 PMID: 25280102 PMCID: PMC4185416 DOI: 10.1016/j.molcel.2014.09.012
Source DB: PubMed Journal: Mol Cell ISSN: 1097-2765 Impact factor: 17.970