TY - JOUR
T1 - PIWI-interacting RNAs
T2 - small RNAs with big functions
AU - Ozata, Deniz M.
AU - Gainetdinov, Ildar
AU - Zoch, Ansgar
AU - O’Carroll, Dónal
AU - Zamore, Phillip D.
N1 - Publisher Copyright:
© 2018, Springer Nature Limited.
PY - 2019/2/1
Y1 - 2019/2/1
N2 - In animals, PIWI-interacting RNAs (piRNAs) of 21–35 nucleotides in length silence transposable elements, regulate gene expression and fight viral infection. piRNAs guide PIWI proteins to cleave target RNA, promote heterochromatin assembly and methylate DNA. The architecture of the piRNA pathway allows it both to provide adaptive, sequence-based immunity to rapidly evolving viruses and transposons and to regulate conserved host genes. piRNAs silence transposons in the germ line of most animals, whereas somatic piRNA functions have been lost, gained and lost again across evolution. Moreover, most piRNA pathway proteins are deeply conserved, but different animals employ remarkably divergent strategies to produce piRNA precursor transcripts. Here, we discuss how a common piRNA pathway allows animals to recognize diverse targets, ranging from selfish genetic elements to genes essential for gametogenesis.
AB - In animals, PIWI-interacting RNAs (piRNAs) of 21–35 nucleotides in length silence transposable elements, regulate gene expression and fight viral infection. piRNAs guide PIWI proteins to cleave target RNA, promote heterochromatin assembly and methylate DNA. The architecture of the piRNA pathway allows it both to provide adaptive, sequence-based immunity to rapidly evolving viruses and transposons and to regulate conserved host genes. piRNAs silence transposons in the germ line of most animals, whereas somatic piRNA functions have been lost, gained and lost again across evolution. Moreover, most piRNA pathway proteins are deeply conserved, but different animals employ remarkably divergent strategies to produce piRNA precursor transcripts. Here, we discuss how a common piRNA pathway allows animals to recognize diverse targets, ranging from selfish genetic elements to genes essential for gametogenesis.
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U2 - 10.1038/s41576-018-0073-3
DO - 10.1038/s41576-018-0073-3
M3 - Review article
C2 - 30446728
AN - SCOPUS:85056693856
SN - 1471-0056
VL - 20
SP - 89
EP - 108
JO - Nature Reviews Genetics
JF - Nature Reviews Genetics
IS - 2
ER -