Roles for small noncoding RNAs in silencing of retrotransposons in the mammalian brain

This is the authors' abstract. We don't add key points for this paper.

Significance Piwi-interacting RNAs (piRNAs), a class of small noncoding RNAs whose primary function in mammals is silencing germline-resident retrotransposons, are also expressed in the Aplysia brain, where they play roles in memory storage. Transposons constitute a bulk of the genome and, when activated, can cause genomic instability and variability by integrating into various gene loci, including those in the mammalian brain, where they can modulate stress response and adaptive behavior and contribute to brain pathology. We show that small RNAs with conserved piRNA-like features are present in the mouse brain. In addition, we describe another class of small noncoding RNAs with features of endogenous siRNAs, which along with putative piRNAs could play critical roles by silencing brain-expressed retrotransposons contributing to mammalian behavior.