a unique combination of male germ cell mirnas coordinates gonocyte differentiation雄性生殖细胞的独特组合microrna坐标性原细胞分化.pdfVIP

A Unique Combination of Male Germ Cell miRNAs Coordinates Gonocyte Differentiation 1 1 2 1 1 Skye C. McIver , Simone J. Stanger , Danielle M. Santarelli , Shaun D. Roman , Brett Nixon , Eileen A. McLaughlin1* 1 ARC Centre of Excellence in Biotechnology and Development, Discipline of Biological Sciences, School of Environmental and Life Sciences, University of Newcastle, Callaghan, New South Wales, Australia, 2 School of Biomedical Sciences and Pharmacy, University of Newcastle, Callaghan, New South Wales, Australia Abstract The last 100 years have seen a concerning decline in male reproductive health associated with decreased sperm production, sperm function and male fertility. Concomitantly, the incidence of defects in reproductive development, such as undescended testes, hypospadias and testicular cancer has increased. Indeed testicular cancer is now recognised as the most common malignancy in young men. Such cancers develop from the pre-invasive lesion Carcinoma in Situ (CIS), a dysfunctional precursor germ cell or gonocyte which has failed to successfully differentiate into a spermatogonium. It is therefore essential to understand the cellular transition from gonocytes to spermatogonia, in order to gain a better understanding of the aetiology of testicular germ cell tumours. MicroRNA (miRNA) are important regulators of gene expression in differentiation and development and thus highly likely to play a role in the differentiation of gonocytes. In this study we have examined the miRNA profiles of highly enriched populations of gonocytes and spermatogonia, using microarray technology. We identified seven differentially expressed miRNAs betwe