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Mouse Piwi-interacting RNAs are 2′-O-methylated at their 3′ termini

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Abstract

Piwi-interacting RNAs (piRNAs) are a novel class of small RNAs that are expressed specifically and abundantly in male germ cells. Here we report that the 3′ termini of piRNAs are 2′-O-methylated; this modification may have important implications for the biogenesis and function of piRNAs.

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Figure 1: piRNAs have phosphate at their 5′ termini and are 2′-O-methylated at their 3′ termini.
Figure 2: Both long and short forms of piR-1 are 2′-O-methylated at the 3′ terminal nucleotide.

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Acknowledgements

We thank T. Suzuki for communicating results of unpublished experiments and T. Suzuki and members of our lab for stimulating discussions. This work was supported by grants from US National Institutes of Health (GM0720777, NS053839 and P30-HD026979) and the Philadelphia Foundation to Z.M.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine, Division of Neuropathology, University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine, Philadelphia, 19104, Pennsylvania, USA

    Yohei Kirino & Zissimos Mourelatos

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  1. Yohei Kirino
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  2. Zissimos Mourelatos
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Correspondence to Zissimos Mourelatos.

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The authors declare no competing financial interests.

Supplementary information

Supplementary Fig. 1

SYBR Gold staining of total mouse piRNAs. (PDF 228 kb)

Supplementary Fig. 2

Enzymatic sequencing of purified piR-1 and piR-1s. (PDF 570 kb)

Supplementary Methods (PDF 153 kb)

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Kirino, Y., Mourelatos, Z. Mouse Piwi-interacting RNAs are 2′-O-methylated at their 3′ termini. Nat Struct Mol Biol 14, 347–348 (2007). https://doi.org/10.1038/nsmb1218

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