Protein function and interaction

PIWIL1 belongs to the Argonaute family, Piwi subfamily. Members of this family retain a common architecture with the PAZ motif in the middle and Piwi motif in the C-terminal region and may be involved in the development and maintenance of stem cells through the RNA-mediated gene-quelling mechanisms associated with DICER (Sasaki et al., 2003 PMID:12906857). The murine homolog of PIWIL1 is essential for spermatogenesis (Deng & Lin, 2002 PMID:12062093). The expression of PIWIL1 is modulated by RASSF1C, the C isoform of the Ras association domain family gene (Reeves et al., 2012 PMID:22591718).