Xenopus Piwi protein associated transcripts indicate regulation beyond transposons

This study examines the population of transcripts associated with the Xenopus Piwi proteins, Xiwi and Xili, from X.laevis and X.tropicalis. RIP-seq, CLIP-seq, piRNA-seq, and mRNA-seq datasets were integrated to determine how the Xenopus Piwi proteins where using piRNAs and binding interactions to associate with transcripts in gonadal cells. We performed several replicates of a Piw CLIP-Seq experiment to isolate RNA fragments as CLIP-tags to discover which transcripts are preferentially bound by the Piwi protein. Then we performed several types of mRNA expression profiling experiments using several forms of mRNA-Seq library construction formats. Finally, we sequenced the piRNAs from the OSS cells