PT  - JOURNAL ARTICLE
AU  - Romeike, Merrit
AU  - Spach, Stephanie
AU  - Huber, Marie
AU  - Feng, Songjie
AU  - Vainorius, Gintautas
AU  - Elling, Ulrich
AU  - Buecker, Christa
TI  - Stem cell specific interferon stimulated gene expression is regulated by the formative pluripotency network through IRF1
AID  - 10.1101/2021.12.07.471598
DP  - 2021 Jan 01
TA  - bioRxiv
PG  - 2021.12.07.471598
4099  - http://biorxiv.org/content/early/2021/12/07/2021.12.07.471598.short
4100  - http://biorxiv.org/content/early/2021/12/07/2021.12.07.471598.full
AB  - Stem cells intrinsically express a subset of genes which are normally associated with interferon stimulation, and thus the innate immunity response. Expression of these interferon stimulated genes (ISG) in stem cells is independent of external stimuli such as viral infection. Here we show that the interferon regulatory factor 1, Irf1, is directly controlled by the murine formative pluripotency gene regulatory network and therefore upregulated in the transition from naive to formative pluripotency. IRF1 in turn binds to regulatory regions of a conserved set of ISGs and is required for their faithful expression in formative pluripotent cells. IRF1 also binds to an enhancer of the formative pluripotency transcription factor Oct6 and is partially required for upregulation of Oct6. IRF1 therefore acts as a link between the formative pluripotency network and the regulation of innate immunity genes in formative pluripotency.Competing Interest StatementThe authors have declared no competing interest.