The RNA helicase DDX17 controls the transcriptional activity of REST and the expression of proneural microRNAs in neuronal differentiation.

ABSTRACT: The Repressor Element 1-silencing transcription factor (REST) represses a number of neuronal genes in non-neuronal cells or in undifferentiated neural progenitors. Here, we report that the DEAD box RNA helicase DDX17 controls important REST-related processes that are critical during the early phases of neuronal differentiation. First, DDX17 associates with REST, promotes its binding to the promoter of a subset of REST-targeted genes and co-regulates REST transcriptional repression activity. During neuronal differentiation, we observed a downregulation of DDX17 along with that of the REST complex that contributes to the activation of neuronal genes. Second, DDX17 and its paralog DDX5 regulate the expression of several proneural microRNAs that are known to target the REST complex during neur

SUBMITTER: Lambert MP 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC6125624 | biostudies-literature | 2018 Sep

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature