Enhanced Crosslinking Immunoprecipitation (eCLIP) Method for Efficient Identification of Protein-bound RNA in Mouse Testis

Spermatogenesis defines a highly ordered process of male germ cell differentiation in mammals. In testis, transcription and translation are uncoupled, underlining the importance of post-transcriptional regulation of gene expression orchestrated by RBPs. To elucidate mechanistic roles of an RBP, crosslinking immunoprecipitation (CLIP) methodology can be used to capture its endogenous direct RNA targets and define the actual interaction sites. The enhanced CLIP (eCLIP) is a newly-developed method that offers several advantages over the conventional CLIPs. However, the use of eCLIP has so far been limited to cell lines, calling for expanded applications. Here, we employed eCLIP to study MOV10 and MOV10L1, two known RNA-binding helicases, in mouse testis. As expected, we find that MOV10 predominantly binds to 3' untranslated regions (UTRs) of mRNA and MOV10L1 selectively binds to Piwi-interacting RNA (piRNA) precursor transcripts. Our eCLIP method allows fast determination of major RNA species bound by various RBPs via small-scale sequencing of subclones and thus availability of qualified libraries, as a warrant for proceeding with deep sequencing. This study establishes an applicable basis for eCLIP in mammalian testis.