PIWIL1 explained

Piwi-like protein 1 is a protein that in humans is encoded by the PIWIL1 gene.^{[1] [2] [3]}

This gene encodes a member of the PIWI subfamily of Argonaute proteins, evolutionarily conserved proteins containing both PAZ and Piwi motifs that play important roles in stem cell self-renewal, RNA silencing, and translational regulation in diverse organisms.

The encoded protein may play a role as an intrinsic regulator of the self-renewal capacity of germline and hematopoietic stem cells.

Further reading

• Sharma AK, Nelson MC, Brandt JE, etal . Human CD34(+) stem cells express the hiwi gene, a human homologue of the Drosophila gene piwi. . Blood . 97 . 2 . 426–34 . 2001 . 11154219 . 10.1182/blood.V97.2.426 . free .
• Qiao D, Zeeman AM, Deng W, etal . Molecular characterization of hiwi, a human member of the piwi gene family whose overexpression is correlated to seminomas. . Oncogene . 21 . 25 . 3988–99 . 2002 . 12037681 . 10.1038/sj.onc.1205505 . 6078065 .
• Strausberg RL, Feingold EA, Grouse LH, etal . Generation and initial analysis of more than 15,000 full-length human and mouse cDNA sequences. . Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A. . 99 . 26 . 16899–903 . 2003 . 12477932 . 10.1073/pnas.242603899 . 139241 . 2002PNAS...9916899M . free .
• Ota T, Suzuki Y, Nishikawa T, etal . Complete sequencing and characterization of 21,243 full-length human cDNAs. . Nat. Genet. . 36 . 1 . 40–5 . 2004 . 14702039 . 10.1038/ng1285 . free .
• Tahbaz N, Kolb FA, Zhang H, etal . Characterization of the interactions between mammalian PAZ PIWI domain proteins and Dicer. . EMBO Rep. . 5 . 2 . 189–94 . 2004 . 14749716 . 10.1038/sj.embor.7400070 . 1298981 .
• Gerhard DS, Wagner L, Feingold EA, etal . The status, quality, and expansion of the NIH full-length cDNA project: the Mammalian Gene Collection (MGC). . Genome Res. . 14 . 10B . 2121–7 . 2004 . 15489334 . 10.1101/gr.2596504 . 528928 .
• Liu X, Sun Y, Guo J, etal . Expression of hiwi gene in human gastric cancer was associated with proliferation of cancer cells. . Int. J. Cancer . 118 . 8 . 1922–9 . 2006 . 16287078 . 10.1002/ijc.21575 . 8616640 .
• Taubert H, Greither T, Kaushal D, etal . Expression of the stem cell self-renewal gene Hiwi and risk of tumour-related death in patients with soft-tissue sarcoma. . Oncogene . 26 . 7 . 1098–100 . 2007 . 16953229 . 10.1038/sj.onc.1209880 . free .
• Sugimoto K, Kage H, Aki N, etal . The induction of H3K9 methylation by PIWIL4 at the p16Ink4a locus. . Biochem. Biophys. Res. Commun. . 359 . 3 . 497–502 . 2007 . 17544373 . 10.1016/j.bbrc.2007.05.136 .

Notes and References

1. Cox DN, Chao A, Baker J, Chang L, Qiao D, Lin H . A novel class of evolutionarily conserved genes defined by piwi are essential for stem cell self-renewal . Genes Dev . 12 . 23 . 3715–27 . Jan 1999 . 9851978 . 317255 . 10.1101/gad.12.23.3715 .
2. Sasaki T, Shiohama A, Minoshima S, Shimizu N . Identification of eight members of the Argonaute family in the human genome small star, filled . Genomics . 82 . 3 . 323–30 . Aug 2003 . 12906857 . 10.1016/S0888-7543(03)00129-0 .
3. Web site: Entrez Gene: PIWIL1 piwi-like 1 (Drosophila).