Disruption of piRNA machinery by deletion of ASZ1/GASZ results in the expression of aberrant chimeric transcripts in gonocytes.

In the male germline, the machinery to repress retrotransposons that threaten genomic integrity via the piRNA pathway is established in gonocytes. It has been reported that disruption of the piRNA pathway leads to activation of retrotransposons and arrests spermatogenesis before it enters the second meiosis; however, its effects on gonocytes have not been fully elucidated. In this study, we analyzed the effects of Asz1 deletion, which is a crucial component of the piRNA pathway, on the gonocyte transcriptome.

Progression of phosphorylated α-synuclein in Macaca fuscata.

Prion-like spreading of abnormal proteins is proposed to occur in neurodegenerative diseases, and the progression of α-synuclein (α-syn) deposits has been reported in the brains of animal models injected with synthetic α-syn fibrils or pathological α-syn prepared from patients with Parkinson's disease (PD) and dementia with Lewy bodies (DLB). However, α-syn transmission in nonhuman primates, which are more similar to humans, has not been fully clarified. Here, we injected synthetic human α-syn fibrils into the left striatum of a macaque monkey (Macaca fuscata).