Small RNA and transcriptome profiling of mice deficient in either germline Dgcr8 or Dicer

We used Illumina Small RNA and RNA-Seq kits to prepare both small RNA and RNA-Seq libraries from total RNA isolated from either leptotenze/zygotene or pachytene spermatocytes purified from either Dgcr8 or Dicer germline conditional knockout mice. Conditional knockout mice were generated by using a Ddx4 promoter to drive cre excision of either Dgcr8 or Dicer at embryonic day 18. Mixed leptotene/zygotene or pachytene spermatocytes were then isolated from the testis of adult conditional knockout mice, along with paired WT littermates as a control. RNA was isolated from these spermatocytes using Trizol. Small RNA or RNA-Seq libraries were then prepped using Illumina's sequencing library preparation kits.