TY  - JOUR
A1  - Yamamoto, Yasuhiro
A1  - Watanabe, Toshiaki
A1  - Hoki, Yuko
A1  - Shirane, Kenjiro
A1  - Li, Yufeng
A1  - Ichiiyanagi, Kenji
A1  - Kuramochi-Miyagawa, Satomi
A1  - Toyoda, Atsushi
A1  - Fujiyama, Asao
A1  - Oginuma, Masayuki
A1  - Suzuki, Hitomi
A1  - Sado, Takashi
A1  - Nakano, Toru
A1  - Sasaki, Hiroyuki
T1  - Targeted gene silencing in mouse germ cells by insertion of a homologous DNA into a piRNA generating locus
Y1  - 2013/02/01 
JF  - Genome Research 
JO  - Genome Research 
SP  - 292 
EP  - 299 
DO  - 10.1101/gr.137224.112 
VL  - 23 
IS  - 2 
UR  - http://genome.cshlp.org/content/23/2/292.abstract 
N2  - In germ cells, early embryos, and stem cells of animals, PIWI-interacting RNAs (piRNAs) have an important role in silencing retrotransposons, which are vicious genomic parasites, through transcriptional and post-transcriptional mechanisms. To examine whether the piRNA pathway can be used to silence genes of interest in germ cells, we have generated knock-in mice in which a foreign DNA fragment was inserted into a region generating pachytene piRNAs. The knock-in sequence was transcribed, and the resulting RNA was processed to yield piRNAs in postnatal testes. When reporter genes possessing a sequence complementary to portions of the knock-in sequence were introduced, they were greatly repressed after the time of pachytene piRNA generation. This repression mainly occurred at the post-transcriptional level, as degradation of the reporter RNAs was accelerated. Our results show that the piRNA pathway can be used as a tool for sequence-specific gene silencing in germ cells and support the idea that the piRNA generating regions serve as traps for retrotransposons, enabling the host cell to generate piRNAs against active retrotransposons. 
ER  -