miRNA expression in C. elegans fem-2(b245ts) and fem-3(q20ts) mutants

We compared animals that produce oocytes but no sperm fem-2(b245ts) to animals that produce sperm but no oocytes fem-3(q20ts). Using miRNA microarrays and we found that the mir-35-41 cluster genes were expressed to much greater extent in oogenesis than in spermatogenesis; furthermore, these miRNAs were the only C. elegans miRNAs that showed such differential germline expression. Total RNA was isolated from staged one day old adult populations. The data were obtained from two biological replicates. Each oligonucleotide was printed four times. Data were scaled based on total array intensities (sum of the normalized spot intensities), and data for each sample and each gene were averaged.