Comparative profiling of sperm small RNAs in cnidarians highlights potential for paternal inheritance

Sperm from three cnidarians—Nematostella vectensis, Astrangia poculata, and Acropora hyacinthus—contains microRNAs, piRNAs, and tRNA-derived RNAs.

• Why it matters: It is unclear whether sperm small RNAs exist and could regulate early development in non-bilaterian metazoans, where their roles remain poorly defined.
• What they did: The study profiled three small-RNA classes in mature sperm from the three cnidarian species and used target prediction and sequence overlap analyses to assess putative functions.
• The result: Most miRNAs were species-specific, predicted targets were enriched in conserved developmental and signaling pathways, piRNAs overlapped transposable elements and genic regions, and tDRs were dominated by 5′-terminal fragments including 5′-tDR-GlyGCC.

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