Stem Cell Reports
Stem Cell Reports
5 years ago

Elevated p53 Activities Restrict Differentiation Potential of MicroRNA-Deficient Pluripotent Stem Cells

Elevated p53 Activities Restrict Differentiation Potential of MicroRNA-Deficient Pluripotent Stem Cells
Pluripotent stem cells (PSCs) deficient for microRNAs (miRNAs), such as Dgcr8 −/− or Dicer −/– embryonic stem cells (ESCs), contain no mature miRNA and cannot differentiate into somatic cells. How miRNA deficiency causes differentiation defects remains poorly understood. Here, we report that miR-302 is sufficient to enable neural differentiation of differentiation-incompetent Dgcr8 −/− ESCs. Our data showed that miR-302 directly suppresses the tumor suppressor p53, which is modestly upregulated in Dgcr8 −/− ESCs and serves as a barrier restricting neural differentiation. We demonstrated that direct inactivation of p53 by SV40 large T antigen, a short hairpin RNA against Trp53, or genetic ablation of Trp53 in Dgcr8 −/− PSCs enables neural differentiation, while activation of p53 by the MDM2 inhibitor nutlin-3a in wild-type ESCs inhibits neural differentiation. Together, we demonstrate that a major function of miRNAs in neural differentiation is suppression of p53 and that modest activation of p53 blocks neural differentiation of miRNA-deficient PSCs.

Graphical abstract

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Teaser

In this article, Zhao and colleagues show that expression of miR-302 is sufficient to enable neural differentiation of differentiation-incompetent Dgcr8 −/− ESCs. The authors demonstrated that miR-302 directly suppresses p53, which serves as a barrier restricting neural differentiation.

Publisher URL: www.sciencedirect.com/science

DOI: S2213671117304617

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