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Review
. 2021 Jul 14:9:681188.
doi: 10.3389/fcell.2021.681188. eCollection 2021.

Knockout Gene-Based Evidence for PIWI-Interacting RNA Pathway in Mammals

Yinuo Li  1 , Yue Zhang  2 , Mingxi Liu  1
Affiliations
Review

Knockout Gene-Based Evidence for PIWI-Interacting RNA Pathway in Mammals

Yinuo Li et al. Front Cell Dev Biol. .

Abstract

The PIWI-interacting RNA (piRNA) pathway mainly consists of evolutionarily conserved protein factors. Intriguingly, many mutations of piRNA pathway factors lead to meiotic arrest during spermatogenesis. The majority of piRNA factor-knockout animals show arrested meiosis in spermatogenesis, and only a few show post-meiosis male germ cell arrest. It is still unclear whether the majority of piRNA factors expressed in spermatids are involved in long interspersed nuclear element-1 repression after meiosis, but future conditional knockout research is expected to resolve this. In addition, recent hamster knockout studies showed that a piRNA factor is necessary for oocytes-in complete contrast to the findings in mice. This species discrepancy allows researchers to reexamine the function of piRNA in female germ cells. This mini-review focuses on the current knowledge of protein factors derived from mammalian knockout studies and summarizes their roles in the biogenesis and function of piRNAs.

Keywords: RBPs; RNA binding proteins; male infertility; meiosis; piRNA.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest.

Figures

FIGURE 1
FIGURE 1
Ping-pong cycle and MIWI2-piRNA-guided chromatin remodeling.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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