PIWI proteins are expressed in germ cells in a wide variety of metazoans, where they participate in the synthesis and function of a novel class of small RNAs called PIWI associated RNAs (piRNAs). One function of piRNAs is to preserve the integrity of the germline genome by silencing transposons, though they also participate in epigenetic and post-transcriptional gene regulation. In the planarian Schmidtea mediterranea, the PIWI proteins SMEDWI-1 and SMEDWI-2 are expressed in neoblasts and SMEDWI-2 is required for regeneration and homeostasis. Here, we identify a diverse population of ;32-nucleotide small RNAs that strongly resemble vertebrate and insect piRNAs and map to hundreds of thousands of loci in the S. mediterranea genome. The expression of these RNAs occurs predominantly in neoblasts and is not restricted to the germline. RNAi knockdown of either SMEDWI-2 or a newly identified PIWI protein, SMEDWI-3, impairs regeneration and homeostasis and decreases the levels of both piRNAs and neoblasts. Therefore, SMEDWI-2 and SMEDWI-3 are required for piRNA expression, regeneration, and neoblast function in S. mediterranea.

MicroRNAs (miRNAs) are ;22-nt RNA molecules that typically bind to the 39 untranslated regions of target mRNAs and function to either induce mRNA degradation or repress translation. miRNAs have been shown to play important roles in the function of stem cells and cell lineage decisions in a variety of organisms, including humans. Planarians are bilaterally symmetric metazoans that have the unique ability to completely regenerate lost tissues or organs. This regenerative capacity is facilitated by a population of stem cells known as neoblasts. Planarians are therefore an excellent model system for studying many aspects of stem cell biology. Here we report the cloning and initial characterization of 71 miRNAs from the planarian Schmidtea mediterranea. While several of the S. mediterranea miRNAs are members of miRNA families identified in other species, we also identified a number of planarian-specific miRNAs. This work lays the foundation for functional studies aimed at addressing the role of these miRNAs in regeneration, cell lineage decisions, and basic stem cell biology.

MicroRNAs (miRNAs) play important roles in directing the differentiation of cells down a variety of cell lineage pathways. The planarian Schmidtea mediterranea can regenerate all lost body tissue after amputation due to a population of pluripotent somatic stem cells called neoblasts, and is therefore an excellent model organism to study the roles of miRNAs in stem cell function. Here, we use a combination of deep sequencing and bioinformatics to discover 66 new miRNAs in S. mediterranea. We also identify 21 miRNAs that are specifically expressed in either sexual or asexual animals. Finally, we identified five miRNAs whose expression is sensitive to g-irradiation, suggesting they are expressed in neoblasts or early neoblast progeny. Together, these results increase the known repertoire of S. mediterranea miRNAs and identify numerous regulated miRNAs that may play important roles in regeneration, homeostasis, neoblast function, and reproduction.

Paget's disease of bone (PDB) is a focal disorder of bone remodeling that leads to overgrowth of affected bone, with rare progression to osteosarcoma. Extensive studies of familial PDB showed that a majority of cases harbor germline mutations in the Sequestosome1 gene (SQSTM1). In contrast, little is known about the mutational status of SQSTM1 in sporadic PDB. We hypothesized that somatic SQSTM1 mutations might occur in the affected tissues of sporadic PDB and pagetic osteosarcoma. We used laser capture microdissection to capture homogeneous populations of cells from the affected bone or tumor of patients with sporadic PDB or pagetic osteosarcoma, respectively. DNA from these samples and appropriate controls was used for sequence analysis and allelic discrimination analysis. Two of five patients with sporadic PDB had SQSTM1C1215T mutations detected in their affected bone but not in their blood samples, indicating a somatic origin of the mutations. Samples from three of five sporadic pagetic osteosarcoma patients had the SQSTM1 C1215T mutation, whereas the normal adjacent tissue from two of these tumors clearly lacked the mutation, again indicating an occurrence of somatic events. No SQSTM1 mutations were found in primary adolescent osteosarcomas. The discovery of somatic SQSTM1 mutations in sporadic PDB and pagetic osteosarcoma shows a role for SQSTM1 in both sporadic and inherited PDB. The discovery of somatically acquired mutations in both the diseased bone and tumor samples suggests a paradigm shift in our understanding of this disease.