Analyses of GLH/VASA mutants in piRNA-mediated genome surveillance

PIWI/piRNA pathway plays an important function in silencing foreign and selfish nucleic acids. While many PIWI pathway components are enriched in germ granules, whether their enrichments in germ granules are critical for piRNA biogenesis or functions remain largely unknown.To investigate the roles of germ granules in piRNA function, this study examines the mRNA and Small RNA expression profiles of VASA mutants and other mutants defective in germ granule assembly.