PT  - JOURNAL ARTICLE
AU  - Ito, Jumpei
AU  - Seita, Yasunari
AU  - Kojima, Shohei
AU  - Parrish, Nicholas F.
AU  - Sasaki, Kotaro
AU  - Sato, Kei
TI  - Endogenous retrovirus rewired the gene regulatory network shared between primordial germ cells and naïve pluripotent cells in hominoids
AID  - 10.1101/2021.03.09.434541
DP  - 2021 Jan 01
TA  - bioRxiv
PG  - 2021.03.09.434541
4099  - http://biorxiv.org/content/early/2021/03/10/2021.03.09.434541.short
4100  - http://biorxiv.org/content/early/2021/03/10/2021.03.09.434541.full
AB  - Although the gene regulatory network controlling germ cell development is critical for gamete integrity, this network has been substantially diversified during mammalian evolution. Here, we show that several hundred loci of LTR5_Hs, a hominoid-specific endogenous retrovirus (ERV), function as enhancers in both human primordial germ cells (PGCs) and naïve pluripotent cells. PGCs and naïve pluripotent cells exhibit a similar transcriptome signature, and the enhancers derived from LTR5_Hs contribute to establishing such similarity. LTR5_Hs appears to be activated by transcription factors critical in both cell types (KLF4, TFAP2C, NANOG, and CBFA2T2). Comparative transcriptome analysis between humans and macaques suggested that the expression of many genes in PGCs and naïve pluripotent cells has been upregulated by LTR5_Hs insertions in the hominoid lineage. Together, this study suggests that LTR5_Hs insertions have rewired and finetuned the gene regulatory network shared between PGCs and naïve pluripotent cells during hominoid evolution.Teaser A hominoid-specific ERV has rewired the gene regulatory network shared between PGCs and naïve pluripotent cells.Competing Interest StatementThe authors have declared no competing interest.