Role of the small subunit processome in the maintenance of pluripotent stem cells
- Kwon Tae You1,2,
- Joha Park1,2 and
- V. Narry Kim1,2
- 1Center for RNA Research, Institute for Basic Science, Seoul 151-742, Korea;
- 2School of Biological Sciences, Seoul National University, Seoul 151-742, Korea
- Corresponding author: narrykim{at}snu.ac.kr
Abstract
RNA-binding proteins (RBPs) play integral roles in gene regulation, yet only a small fraction of RBPs has been studied in the context of stem cells. Here we applied an RNAi screen for RBPs in mouse embryonic stem cells (ESCs) and identified 16 RBPs involved in pluripotency maintenance. Interestingly, six identified RBPs, including Krr1 and Ddx47, are part of a complex called small subunit processome (SSUP) that mediates 18S rRNA biogenesis. The SSUP components are preferentially expressed in stem cells and enhance the global translational rate, which is critical to sustain the protein levels of labile pluripotency factors such as Nanog and Esrrb. Furthermore, the SSUP proteins are required for efficient reprogramming of induced pluripotent stem cells. Our study uncovers the role of the SSUP and the importance of translational control in stem cell fate decision.
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Footnotes
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Supplemental material is available for this article.
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Article is online at http://www.genesdev.org/cgi/doi/10.1101/gad.267112.115.
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Freely available online through the Genes & Development Open Access option.
- Received June 11, 2015.
- Accepted September 3, 2015.
This article, published in Genes & Development, is available under a Creative Commons License (Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International), as described at http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/.
