Double-stranded RNA in testis

We precipitated dsRNA using the monoclonal J2 antibody and deep-sequenced the enriched samples from testis of juvenile dicer knock-out mice, age matched controls and adult animals. The dsRNA transcriptome is significantly less complex in juvenile mice as compared to adult controls and, possibly as a consequence, the knock-out of Dicer had only a minor effect of the total number of transcribed regions associated with dsRNA. The genes that potentially generate dsRNA are significantly expressed in isolated sperm cells with particular enrichment in pachytene spermatocytes. Double-stranded RNA immunopurification using the J2 antibody (Scicons) from mouse testis, including 18 days old mice, age matched dicer knock-out mice and adult controls.