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[Research Article] Deficiency of microRNA miR-34a expands cell fate potential in pluripotent stem cells

ScienceNOW - Fetched: February 9th, 2017, 3:00pm UTC

Embryonic stem cells (ESCs) and induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs) efficiently generate all embryonic cell lineages but rarely generate extraembryonic cell types. We found that microRNA miR-34a deficiency expands the developmental potential of mouse pluripotent stem cells, yielding both embryonic and extraembryonic lineages and strongly inducing MuERV-L (MERVL) endogenous retroviruses, similar to what is seen with features of totipotent two-cell blastomeres. miR-34a restricts the acquisition of expanded cell fate potential in pluripotent stem cells, and it represses MERVL expression through transcriptional regulation, at least in part by targeting the transcription factor Gata2. Our studies reveal a complex molecular network that defines and restricts pluripotent developmental potential in cultured ESCs and iPSCs. Authors: Yong Jin Choi, Chao-Po Lin, Davide Risso, Sean Chen, Thomas Aquinas Kim, Meng How Tan, Jin Billy Li, Yalei Wu, Caifu Chen, Zhenyu Xuan, Todd Macfarlan, Weiqun Peng, K. C. Kent Lloyd, Sang Yong Kim, Terence P. Speed, Lin He

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