Project description:Autophagy is a catabolic membrane trafficking process involved in degradation of cellular constituents through lysosomes, which maintains cell and tissue homeostasis. While much attention has been focused on autophagic turnover of cytoplasmic materials, little is known regarding the role of autophagy in degrading nuclear components. Here we report that autophagy machinery mediates degradation of nuclear lamina in mammalian cells, a process we term laminophagy. The autophagy protein LC3 is present in the nucleus and directly interacts with the nuclear lamina protein Lamin B1, and associates with lamin-associated domains (LADs) on chromatin. This interaction does not downregulate Lamin B1 during starvation, but mediates nuclear lamina degradation upon tumorigenic insults, such as by oncogenic Ras. Laminophagy is achieved by nucleus-to-cytosol transport that delivers Lamin B1 to lysosome for degradation. Inhibiting autophagy or LC3-Lamin B1 interaction prevents oncogenic Ras-induced Lamin B1 loss and delays oncogene-induced cell cycle arrest. Our study unveils a role of autophagy in degrading nuclear materials, and suggests laminophagy as a guarding mechanism protecting cells from tumorigenesis.
Project description:Gene expression profiling of immortalized human mesenchymal stem cells with hTERT/E6/E7 transfected MSCs. hTERT may change gene expression in MSCs. Goal was to determine the gene expressions of immortalized MSCs.
Project description:Here, we identified Prdm16 as a FAPs-enriched factor that mediates their developmental capacities by modulating H3K9me2-marked heterochromatin organization at the nuclear lamina. We show that deletion of Prdm16 prevents FAPs adipogenic differentiation and unlocks a myogenic capacity. We found that Prdm16 localizes at the nuclear lamina where it cooperates with the H3K9 methyltransferases (KMTs), G9a and GLP, to mediate H3K9me2 deposition.