Macpiwi1 and Macvasa silencing leads to piRNA downregulation and transposon derepression. (A) Quantitative PCR showing RNAi knockdown efficiency as compared to luciferase dsRNA. (B) Length distribution plotted against sequence abundance and complexity of small RNAs from luciferase, Macpiwi1, and Macvasa knockdown (KD) worms. Numbers of uncollapsed and collapsed reads per million total reads (RPM) aligned to the genome are plotted. (C) Distribution of 5′ overlaps between piRNAs from sense and antisense strands in Macpiwi1, Macvasa, and luciferase KD. (D) Read counts of piRNAs mapped to individual transposon-related transcripts are plotted for luciferase KD and Macpiwi1 or Macvasa KD worms. Each dot represents a transposon consensus sequence. Axes are presented on log10 scale. (RPKM) Reads per kilo base pair per million. (E) A Venn diagram showing numbers of transcripts with decreased piRNA production and the overlap of those between Macpiwi1 KD and Macvasa KD. (F) mRNA fold change of CEGMA core gene set and transposon consensus sequences in Macpiwi1 KD and Macvasa KD, compared with luciferase KD.
