The Evolutionarily Conserved piRNA Producing Locus pi6 Is Required for Male Mouse Fertility
We report the generation and characterization of mouse mutants that do not produce piRNAs from a pachytene piRNA-producing locus on chromosome 6 (pi6). For molecular characterization, we generated RNA-seq, small RNA-seq, and degradome libraries from the sorted testicular germ cells from wild-type (C57BL/6), two independent alleles of pi6 mutant (pi6em1/em1 and pi6em2/em2), and pi17-/- mice.