Talk abstracts
Talk on Saturday 12:00-12:15pm submitted by Rachel Pepin
microRNA-mediated regulation of microRNA machinery controls cell fate decisions
Rachel M. Pepin (Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, Mayo Clinic, Rochester, MN, 55905, USA), Qiuying Liu (Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, Mayo Clinic, Rochester, MN, 55905, USA), Mariah K. Novak (Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, Mayo Clinic, Rochester, MN, 55905, USA), Taylor Eich (Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, Mayo Clinic, Rochester, MN, 55905, USA), Wenqian Hu (Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, Mayo Clinic, Rochester, MN, 55905, USA)
Abstract:
microRNAs associate with Argonaute proteins, forming the microRNA-induced silencing complex (miRISC), to repress target gene expression post-transcriptionally. Although microRNAs are critical regulators in mammalian cell differentiation, our understanding of how microRNA machinery, such as the miRISC, are regulated during development is still limited. Here, using mouse embryonic stem cell (mESC) fate decisions between pluripotency and differentiation as a model, we found that Ago2 is the major developmentally regulated Argonaute protein in mESCs. In pluripotency, microRNA-182/microRNA-183 repress Ago2. Specific inhibition of this repression results in stemness defects and accelerated differentiation through the let-7 microRNA pathway. These results reveal a microRNA-mediated regulatory circuit on microRNA machinery that is critical to maintaining pluripotency.
Keywords: microRNA, Ago2, pluripotency