Affiliations 

  • 1 Department of Molecular Pathology, The Institute of Medical and Veterinary Science and The Hanson Institute, P.O. Box 14 Rundle Mall Post Office, Adelaide, SA 5000, Australia; School of Medicine, Faculty of Health Sciences, University of Adelaide, Adelaide, SA 5005, Australia; NeuroBiology & Genetics Group, Genetics and Regenerative Medicine Research Centre, Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences, Universiti Putra Malaysia, 43400 Serdang, Selangor DE, Malaysia. Electronic address: [email protected]
  • 2 Department of Molecular Pathology, The Institute of Medical and Veterinary Science and The Hanson Institute, P.O. Box 14 Rundle Mall Post Office, Adelaide, SA 5000, Australia
  • 3 NeuroBiology & Genetics Group, Genetics and Regenerative Medicine Research Centre, Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences, Universiti Putra Malaysia, 43400 Serdang, Selangor DE, Malaysia; School of Molecular and Biomedical Science, Faculty of Sciences, University of Adelaide, Adelaide, SA 5005, Australia; Department of Human Anatomy, Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences, Universiti Putra Malaysia, 43400 UPM Serdang, Selangor DE, Malaysia
  • 4 eResearchSA, University of Adelaide, North Terrace, Adelaide, SA 5005, Australia
  • 5 School of Molecular and Biomedical Science, Faculty of Sciences, University of Adelaide, Adelaide, SA 5005, Australia
  • 6 Theme of Laboratory and Community Genetics, Murdoch Childrens Research Institute, Royal Children's Hospital, Flemington Road, Parkville, VIC 3052, Australia
  • 7 Biomedicine Discovery Institute, Monash University, VIC 3800, Australia
  • 8 Department of Molecular Pathology, The Institute of Medical and Veterinary Science and The Hanson Institute, P.O. Box 14 Rundle Mall Post Office, Adelaide, SA 5000, Australia; School of Medicine, Faculty of Health Sciences, University of Adelaide, Adelaide, SA 5005, Australia. Electronic address: [email protected]
Genomics, 2016 Mar;107(2-3):88-99.
PMID: 26802803 DOI: 10.1016/j.ygeno.2016.01.006

Abstract

Natural antisense transcripts (NATs) are involved in cellular development and regulatory processes. Multiple NATs at the Sox4 gene locus are spatiotemporally regulated throughout murine cerebral corticogenesis. In the study, we evaluated the potential functional role of Sox4 NATs at Sox4 gene locus. We demonstrated Sox4 sense and NATs formed dsRNA aggregates in the cytoplasm of brain cells. Over expression of Sox4 NATs in NIH/3T3 cells generally did not alter the level of Sox4 mRNA expression or protein translation. Upregulation of a Sox4 NAT known as Sox4ot1 led to the production of a novel small RNA, Sox4_sir3. Its biogenesis is Dicer1-dependent and has characteristics resemble piRNA. Expression of Sox4_sir3 was observed in the marginal and germinative zones of the developing and postnatal brains suggesting a potential role in regulating neurogenesis. We proposed that Sox4 sense-NATs serve as Dicer1-dependent templates to produce a novel endo-siRNA- or piRNA-like Sox4_sir3.

* Title and MeSH Headings from MEDLINE®/PubMed®, a database of the U.S. National Library of Medicine.