The small RNA content of human sperm reveals pseudogene-derived piRNAs complementary to protein-coding genes
Pantano, Lorena (Institut Germans Trias i Pujol. Institut de Medicina Predictiva i Personalitzada del Càncer)
Jodar, Meritxell (Institut d'Investigació Biomèdica de Bellvitge)
Bak, Mads (University of Copenhagen (Dinamarca))
Ballescà, Josep Lluís (Hospital Clínic i Provincial de Barcelona)
Tommerup, Niels (University of Copenhagen (Dinamarca))
Oliva Virgili, Rafael (Hospital Clínic i Provincial de Barcelona)
Vavouri, Tanya (Institut Germans Trias i Pujol. Institut de Recerca contra la Leucèmia Josep Carreras)

Date:	2015
Abstract:	Abstract. At the end of mammalian sperm development, sperm cells expel most of their cytoplasm and dispose of the majority of their RNA. Yet, hundreds of RNA molecules remain in mature sperm. The biological significance of the vast majority of these molecules is unclear. To better understand the processes that generate sperm small RNAs and what roles they may have, we sequenced and characterized the small RNA content of sperm samples from two human fertile individuals. We detected 182 microRNAs, some of which are highly abundant. The most abundant microRNA in sperm is miR-1246 with predicted targets among sperm-specific genes. The most abundant class of small noncoding RNAs in sperm are PIWI-interacting RNAs (piRNAs). Surprisingly, we found that human sperm cells contain piRNAs processed from pseudogenes. Clusters of piRNAs from human testes contain pseudogenes transcribed in the antisense strand and processed into small RNAs. Several human protein-coding genes contain antisense predicted targets of pseudogene-derived piRNAs in the male germline and these piRNAs are still found in mature sperm. Our study provides the most extensive data set and annotation of human sperm small RNAs to date and is a resource for further functional studies on the roles of sperm small RNAs. In addition, we propose that some of the pseudogene-derived human piRNAs may regulate expression of their parent gene in the male germline. © 2015 Pantano et al. ; Published by Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press for the RNA Society.
Grants:	Ministerio de Economía y Competitividad FEDER/BFU/2009-07118 Ministerio de Economía y Competitividad PI13/00699
Note:	Altres ajuts: MICINN grant BFU2011-30246, Ramon y Cajal grant RYC-2010-07114, European Commission Framework 7 European Re-integration grant PERG08-GA-2010-276741, Institute of Predictive and Personalized Medicine of Cancer (IMPPC), Danish Council for Independent Research (Technology and Production Sciences), The Lundbeck Foundation, Fundación Salud 2000 SERONO 13-01 i European Commission training network grant (FP7-PEOPLE-2011-ITN289880)
Rights:	Tots els drets reservats.
Language:	Anglès
Document:	Article ; recerca ; Versió publicada
Subject:	PIWI ; RNA ; Microrna ; Pirna ; Pseudogene ; Sperm
Published in:	RNA, Vol. 21 Núm. 6 (June 2015) , ISSN 1469-9001

DOI: 10.1261/rna.046482.114
PMID: 25904136

12 p, 735.8 KB

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Research literature > UAB research groups literature > Research Centres and Groups (research output) > Health sciences and biosciences > Institut d'Investigació en Ciencies de la Salut Germans Trias i Pujol (IGTP) > Josep Carreras Leukaemia Research Institute
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