O'Donnell Kathryn A, Boeke Jef D
Department of Molecular Biology and Genetics, The Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, Baltimore, MD 21205, USA.
Cell. 2007 Apr 6;129(1):37-44. doi: 10.1016/j.cell.2007.03.028.
Piwis are a germline-specific subclass of the Argonaute family of RNA interference (RNAi) effector proteins that are associated with a recently discovered group of small RNAs (piRNAs). Recent studies in Drosophila and zebrafish directly implicate Piwi proteins in piRNA biogenesis to maintain transposon silencing in the germline genome (Brennecke et al., 2007; Gunawardane et al., 2007; Houwing et al., 2007). This function may be conserved in mice as loss of Miwi2, a mouse Piwi homolog, leads to germline stem cell and meiotic defects correlated with increased transposon activity (Carmell et al., 2007).
Piwi蛋白是RNA干扰（RNAi）效应蛋白AGO家族中一类生殖系特异性亚类，与最近发现的一组小RNA（piRNA）相关。果蝇和斑马鱼的最新研究直接表明Piwi蛋白参与piRNA生物发生，以维持生殖系基因组中转座子的沉默（Brennecke等人，2007年；Gunawardane等人，2007年；Houwing等人，2007年）。这种功能在小鼠中可能是保守的，因为小鼠Piwi同源物Miwi2的缺失会导致生殖系干细胞和减数分裂缺陷，这与转座子活性增加相关（Carmell等人，2007年）。
