Adult Murine Interstitial Cells of Cajal (ICC) and Small Intestine (Sm Int) Somatic piRNA-like RNA (pilRNA)

This study annotates the NGS reads in ICC and Sm Int sncRNA libraries. In addition to known sncRNAs, we identified numerous somatic piRNA-like RNAs. This study confirms the expression of pilRNAs in somatic tissues and outlines their major characteristics. ICC and Sm Int were collected from adult mice (C57BL/6). Small RNA was isolated from samples and cDNA libraries were generated for 454 sequencing. Sequences from FastA files were aligned to known sncRNA and the mouse mm9 genome. This was followed by subsequent novel small RNA annotation.