Abstract
BackgroundThere have been increasing attentions on the role of small RNAs, especially microRNAs in post-transcriptional gene regulation during spermatogenesis. MicroRNA-184 (miR-184) has been shown to be mainly expressed in the testis and brain, and that its expression levels are by far the highest in the testis. However, the role of miR-184 in mammalian spermatogenesis remains unclear.ResultsIn this study, we demonstrated that miR-184 levels were increased during mouse postnatal testis development. Specifically, miR-184 expression was restricted to the germ cells from spermatogonia to round spermatids. Overexpression of miR-184 promoted the proliferation of a germ cell line, GC-1spg. Moreover, miR-184 downregulated nuclear receptor corepressor 2 (Ncor2) by targeting its 3' untranslated region through inhibiting NCOR2 protein translation.ConclusionsMiR-184 may be involved in the post-transcription regulation of mRNAs such as Ncor2 in mammalian spermatogenesis.
Highlights
There have been increasing attentions on the role of small RNAs, especially microRNAs in posttranscriptional gene regulation during spermatogenesis
Our findings suggest that miR-184 may be involved in the post-transcription regulation of mRNAs such as nuclear receptor corepressor 2 (Ncor2) in mammalian spermatogenesis
MiR-184 expression levels increased during the postnatal development of the mouse testis As shown in Figure 1, levels of miR-184 increased during the postnatal development of the mouse testis
Summary
There have been increasing attentions on the role of small RNAs, especially microRNAs in posttranscriptional gene regulation during spermatogenesis. The role of miR-184 in mammalian spermatogenesis remains unclear. Spermatogenesis is a highly regulated process of germ cell differentiation that can be subdivided into three main phases: spermatogonial proliferation, meiosis of spermatocytes and spermiogenesis of haploid spermatids. The meiotic and haploid phases of spermatogenesis are characterized by high transcriptional activity but suppressed translational activity. Post-transcriptional control of gene expression in these phases is a significant feature of mammalian spermatogenesis [1]. MicroRNAs (miRNAs) are a family of small non-coding RNAs (typically 19~23 nt), which play important roles in regulating post-transcriptional gene silence through basepair binding to their target mRNA [2]. Numerous miRNAs are exclusively or preferentially expressed in the mouse testis [3]. Spermatogenesis is disrupted at the early stage of proliferation
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