Human placental piwi-interacting RNA transcriptome is characterized by expression from the DLK1 - DIO3 imprinted region

The placenta is vital to embryonic development and requires a finely-tuned pattern of gene expression, achieved in part by its unique epigenetic landscape. Piwi-interacting RNAs (piRNAs) are a class of small-non-coding RNA with established roles as epigenetic regulators of gene expression, largely via methylation of targeted DNA sequences. The expression of piRNAs have mainly been described in germ cells, but a fraction have been shown to retain expression in adult somatic tissues. To aid in understanding the contribution of these regulators in the placenta, we provide the first description of the piRNA transcriptome in human placentas. We find 297 piRNAs to be preferentially expressed in the human placenta, a subset of which are expressed at higher levels relative to testes samples. We also observed a large proportion of placental piRNAs to be expressed from a single locus, as distinct from canonical cluster locations associated with transposable element silencing. Finally, we find that 15 of the highest-expressed placental piRNAs maps to the DLK1-DIO3 locus, suggesting a link to placental biology. Our findings suggest that piRNAs could contribute to the molecular networks defining placental function in humans, and a biological impact of piRNA expression beyond germ cells.