Tumor suppressor miR-317 and lncRNA Peony are expressed from a polycistronic non-coding RNA locus that regulates germline differentiation and testis morphology.

This research focuses on investigating the impact of non-coding RNAs on stem cell biology and differentiation processes. We found that plays a role in germline stem cell progeny differentiation. and its neighbor, the lncRNA , originate and are co-expressed from a singular polycistronic non-coding RNA locus. Alternative polyadenylation is implicated in regulation of their differential expression. While the increased expression of the lncRNA results in the disruption of the muscle sheath covering the testis, the absence of leads to the emergence of germline tumors in young flies. The deficiency of increases Notch signaling activity in the somatic cyst cells, which drives germline tumorigenesis. Germline tumors also arise from upregulation of several predicted targets of , among which are regulators of the Notch pathway. This implicates as a novel tumor suppressor that modulates Notch signaling strength.