Wu Jingwen, Bao Jianqiang, Wang Li, Hu Yanqin, Xu Chen
Department of Histology & Embryology, Shanghai Jiaotong University School of Medicine, Shanghai 200025, China.
BMC Dev Biol. 2011 Oct 24;11:64. doi: 10.1186/1471-213X-11-64.
There 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.
In 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.
MiR-184 may be involved in the post-transcription regulation of mRNAs such as Ncor2 in mammalian spermatogenesis.
小RNA，尤其是微小RNA在精子发生过程中的转录后基因调控作用受到越来越多的关注。微小RNA - 184（miR - 184）已被证明主要在睾丸和大脑中表达，且其在睾丸中的表达水平目前是最高的。然而，miR - 184在哺乳动物精子发生中的作用仍不清楚。
在本研究中，我们证明了miR - 184水平在小鼠出生后睾丸发育过程中升高。具体而言，miR - 184的表达局限于从精原细胞到圆形精子细胞的生殖细胞。miR - 184的过表达促进了生殖细胞系GC - 1spg的增殖。此外，miR - 184通过靶向核受体辅阻遏物2（Ncor2）的3'非翻译区，抑制NCOR2蛋白翻译，从而下调Ncor2。
MiR - 184可能参与哺乳动物精子发生过程中如Ncor2等mRNA的转录后调控。
