Journal Article

A novel class of tRNA-derived small RNAs extremely en- riched in mature mouse sperm

2012

Overview

Dear editor, The discovery of sperm-borne RNAs （mRNAs and small non-coding RNAs） has opened the possibility of additional paternal contributions aside from provid- ing the DNA [1]. It has been reported that the incoming sperm can provide information for its host egg cyto- plasm, which functionally influences the order of cell division [2], possibly via delivering RNAs. Indeed, the sperm-borne miRNA and mRNA have been demonstrat- ed as active players in early embryo development [3] and transgenerational epigenetic inheritance [4]. However, given the diversity of small RNA classes （miRNA, endo- siRNA, piRNA, etc.） generated during spermatogenesis, the contents and profiles of the small RNA population carried by mature sperm remain undefined. In the pres- ent study, we isolated mature sperm from the cauda epididymis of adult male mice （Supplementary infor- mation, Data S1）. The purity of sperm was 〉 99% as evaluated by microscopy and was confirmed by RT-PCR analyses of different biomarkers （Supplementary infor- mation, Figure S1A and S1B）. The RNA extracted from mature sperm, adult testis, and uterus were processed for small RNA （〈 40 nt） deep sequencing （Supplementary information, Figure S1C, S1D, S1E and Data S1）.

• Subject: miRNA / RT-PCR分析 / tRNA / 富集 / 小分子RNA / 精子成熟 / 衍生 / 雄性小鼠