Research article
MicroRNA-184 downregulates nuclear receptor corepressor 2 in mouse spermatogenesis
Author affiliations
1 Department of Histology & Embryology, Shanghai Jiaotong University School of Medicine, Shanghai 200025, China
2 Shanghai Key Laboratory of Reproductive Medicine, Shanghai 200025, China
Citation and License
BMC Developmental Biology 2011, 11:64 doi:10.1186/1471-213X-11-64
Published: 24 October 2011Abstract
Background
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.
Results
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.
Conclusions
MiR-184 may be involved in the post-transcription regulation of mRNAs such as Ncor2 in mammalian spermatogenesis.
