Journal
JOURNAL OF BIOLOGICAL CHEMISTRY
Volume 293, Issue 11, Pages 3925-3936Publisher
AMER SOC BIOCHEMISTRY MOLECULAR BIOLOGY INC
DOI: 10.1074/jbc.RA117.000425
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- National Institutes of Health through M. D. Anderson's Cancer Center Support Grant [CA016672]
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The stemness maintenance of embryonic stem cells (ESCs) requires pluripotency transcription factors, including Oct4, Nanog, and Sox2. We have previously reported that protein arginine methyltransferase 7 (PRMT7), an epigenetic modifier, is an essential pluripotency factor that maintains the stemness of mouse ESCs, at least in part, by down-regulating the expression of the anti-stemness microRNA (miRNA) miR-24-2. To gain greater insight into the molecular basis underlying PRMT7-mediated maintenance of mouse ESC stemness, we searched for new PRMT7-down-regulated anti-stemness miRNAs. Here, we show that miR-221 gene-encoded miR-221-3p and miR-221-5p are anti-stemness miRNAs whose expression levels in mouse ESCs are directly repressed by PRMT7. Notably, both miR-221-3p and miR-221-5p targeted the 3'untranslated regions of mRNA transcripts of the major pluripotency factors Oct4, Nanog, and Sox2 to antagonize mouse ESC stemness. Moreover, miR-221-5p silenced also the expression of its own transcriptional repressor PRMT7. Transfection of miR-221-3p and miR-221-5p mimics induced spontaneous differentiation of mouse ESCs. CRISPR-mediated deletion of the miR-221 gene, as well as specific antisense inhibitors of miR-221-3p and miR221-5p, inhibited the spontaneous differentiation of PRMT7depleted mouse ESCs. Taken together, these findings reveal that the PRMT7-mediated repression of miR-221-3p and miR221- 5p expression plays a critical role in maintaining mouse ESC stemness. Our results also establish miR-221-3p and miR221- 5p as anti-stemness miRNAs that target Oct4, Nanog, and Sox2 mRNAs in mouse ESCs.
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