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Golden opportunity for piRNA in female fertility

Mice deficient in the piRNA pathway display sterility only in males. Taking advantage of a more representative piRNA pathway in golden hamsters, three studies now demonstrate that the piRNA pathway is essential for fertility in hamsters of both sexes and thus strongly link this small RNA pathway to fertility regulation in both men and women.

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Fig. 1: Sexually dimorphic requirement for the piRNA pathway in mice but not golden hamsters.

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Correspondence to P. Jeremy Wang.

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Guan, Y., Wang, P.J. Golden opportunity for piRNA in female fertility. Nat Cell Biol 23, 936–938 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41556-021-00749-z

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