Post-transcriptional regulation of mouse neurogenesis by Pumilio proteins

  1. Haifan Lin1,2,6,9
  1. 1Yale Stem Cell Center, Yale School of Medicine, New Haven, Connecticut 06520, USA;
  2. 2Department of Cell Biology, Yale School of Medicine, New Haven, Connecticut 06520, USA;
  3. 3Department of Microbial Pathogenesis, Yale School of Medicine, New Haven, Connecticut 06536, USA;
  4. 4Department of Neuroscience, Yale School of Medicine, New Haven, Connecticut 06510, USA;
  5. 5Department of Psychiatry, Yale School of Medicine, New Haven, Connecticut 06511, USA;
  6. 6Department of Genetics, Yale School of Medicine, New Haven, Connecticut 06520, USA;
  7. 7Section of Comparative Medicine, Program in Cellular Neuroscience, Neurodegeneration, and Repair, Yale School of Medicine, New Haven, Connecticut 06520, USA;
  8. 8Yale Child Study Center, Yale School of Medicine, New Haven, Connecticut 06519, USA;
  9. 9Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, Yale School of Medicine, New Haven, Connecticut 06520, USA
  1. Corresponding author: haifan.lin{at}yale.edu

Abstract

Despite extensive studies on mammalian neurogenesis, its post-transcriptional regulation remains under-explored. Here we report that neural-specific inactivation of two murine post-transcriptional regulators, Pumilio 1 (Pum1) and Pum2, severely reduced the number of neural stem cells (NSCs) in the postnatal dentate gyrus (DG), drastically increased perinatal apoptosis, altered DG cell composition, and impaired learning and memory. Consistently, the mutant DG neurospheres generated fewer NSCs with defects in proliferation, survival, and differentiation, supporting a major role of Pum1 and Pum2 in hippocampal neurogenesis and function. Cross-linking immunoprecipitation revealed that Pum1 and Pum2 bind to thousands of mRNAs, with at least 694 common targets in multiple neurogenic pathways. Depleting Pum1 and/or Pum2 did not change the abundance of most target mRNAs but up-regulated their proteins, indicating that Pum1 and Pum2 regulate the translation of their target mRNAs. Moreover, Pum1 and Pum2 display RNA-dependent interaction with fragile X mental retardation protein (FMRP) and bind to one another's mRNA. This indicates that Pum proteins might form collaborative networks with FMRP and possibly other post-transcriptional regulators to regulate neurogenesis.

Keywords

Footnotes

  • Received March 11, 2017.
  • Accepted July 14, 2017.

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