Project description:Tissue regeneration depends on the timely activation of adult stem cells. In skeletal muscle, the adult stem cells maintain a quiescent state and proliferate upon injury. We show that muscle stem cells (MuSCs) use direct translational repression to maintain the quiescent state. High resolution single molecule and single cell analyses demonstrate that quiescent MuSCs express high levels of Myogenic Differentiation1 (MyoD) transcript in vivo, whereas MyoD protein is absent. RNA pulldowns and co-stainings show that MyoD mRNA interacts with Staufen1, a potent regulator of mRNA localization, translation, and stability. Staufen1 prevents MyoD translation through its interaction with the MyoD 3’UTR. MuSCs from Staufen1 heterozygous (Staufen1+/-) mice have increased MyoD protein expression, exit quiescence, and begin proliferating. Conversely, blocking MyoD translation maintains the quiescent phenotype. Collectively, our data show that MuSCs express MyoD mRNA and actively repress its translation to remain quiescent yet primed for activation.
Project description:It has been shown recently that non-coding RNAs including miRNAs are involved in the development of skeletal muscle progenitors and to maintain the quiescent condition of adult skeletal muscle stem cells. To identify the difference among developing skeletal muscle-committed progenitors or stem cells detected by Pax3-GFP; MyoD-primed RFP expressions, miRNA microarray was performed. Pax3-GFP; MyoD-RFP positive cells were selected at several developmental stages for miRNA extraction and hybridization on Affymetrix
Project description:Increasing evidence suggests that Long non-coding RNAs (LncRNAs) represent a new class of regulators of stem cells. However, the roles of LncRNAs in stem cell maintenance and myogenesis remain largely unexamined. For this study, hundreds of novel intergenic LncRNAs were identified that are expressed in myoblasts and regulated during differentiation. One of these LncRNAs, termed LncMyoD, is encoded next to the Myod gene and is directly activated by MyoD during myoblast differentiation. Knockdown of LncMyoD strongly inhibits terminal muscle differentiation largely due to a failure to exit the cell cycle. LncMyoD directly binds to IGF2-mRNA-binding-protein 2 (IMP2) and negatively regulates IMP2-mediated translation of proliferation genes such as N-Ras and c-Myc. While the RNA sequence of LncMyoD is not well-conserved between human and mouse, its locus, gene structure and function is preserved. The MyoD-LncMyoD-IMP2 pathway elucidates a mechanism as to how MyoD blocks proliferation to create a permissive state for differentiation. In order to perform an unbiased search for downstream signaling pathways perturbed by LncMyodD downregulation, microarrays were performed on myoblasts treated with control vs LncMyoD shRNAs. Total RNA was extracted using the TRIzol reagent (Invitrogen) and purified with Qiagen RNeasy separation columns (Qiagen) from myoblasts treated with control vs. LncMyoD shRNA. First-strand cDNA was synthesized and hybridized to GeneChip Mouse Genome 430 2.0 Array (Affymetrix).
Project description:It has been shown recently that non-coding RNAs including miRNAs are involved in the development of skeletal muscle progenitors and to maintain the quiescent condition of adult skeletal muscle stem cells. To identify the difference among developing skeletal muscle-committed progenitors or stem cells detected by Pax3-GFP; MyoD-primed RFP expressions, miRNA microarray was performed.
Project description:Organismal homeostasis and regeneration are predicated on committed stem cells which, in tissues and organs with low turnover, reside for long periods in a reversible cell cycle arrest, defined as quiescence. Inability to exit or premature escape from quiescence, as occurring in pathological conditions and aging, is detrimental as it results in either lack of stem cell mobilization or pool depletion with consequent defective tissue homeostatis and regeneration. It is therefore unsurprising that quiescence is safeguarded by multilayered regulatory mechanisms. Here, we report that Polycomb Ezh1 confers quiescence to muscle stem cells (MuSCs) through a non-canonical function. In the absence of Ezh1, MuSCs spontaneously exit quiescence and, following repeated injuries, the stem cell pool is depleted resulting in failure to sustain appropriate muscle regeneration. Rather than regulating repressive Polycomb-dependent histone H3K27 methylation, Ezh1 actively maintains the Notch signaling pathway in MuSCs. Accordingly, selective genetic reconstitution of the Notch signaling corrects stem cell number and re-establishes quiescence of Ezh1-/- MuSCs.
Project description:Quiescent adult muscle stem cells (MuSCs) regenerate skeletal muscle upon injury throughout life. However, aged skeletal muscles fail to maintain stem cell quiescence, leading to declines in MuSC number and functionality. Although autophagy plays an important role in the maintenance of MuSC quiescence, how quiescent MuSCs and their autophagy levels are maintained throughout life is largely unknown. The current study reveals how GnRH, a hypothalamic hormone, maintains the quiescence of adult MuSCs by preventing the onset of senescence and how the decline of sex steroids in organismal ageing is implicated in MuSC ageing.
Project description:Increasing evidence suggests that Long non-coding RNAs (LncRNAs) represent a new class of regulators of stem cells. However, the roles of LncRNAs in stem cell maintenance and myogenesis remain largely unexamined. For this study, hundreds of novel intergenic LncRNAs were identified that are expressed in myoblasts and regulated during differentiation. One of these LncRNAs, termed LncMyoD, is encoded next to the Myod gene and is directly activated by MyoD during myoblast differentiation. Knockdown of LncMyoD strongly inhibits terminal muscle differentiation largely due to a failure to exit the cell cycle. LncMyoD directly binds to IGF2-mRNA-binding-protein 2 (IMP2) and negatively regulates IMP2-mediated translation of proliferation genes such as N-Ras and c-Myc. While the RNA sequence of LncMyoD is not well-conserved between human and mouse, its locus, gene structure and function is preserved. The MyoD-LncMyoD-IMP2 pathway elucidates a mechanism as to how MyoD blocks proliferation to create a permissive state for differentiation. In order to perform an unbiased search for downstream signaling pathways perturbed by LncMyodD downregulation, microarrays were performed on myoblasts treated with control vs LncMyoD shRNAs.
Project description:Quiescence is essential for the long term maintenance of adult stem cells and tissue homeostasis. However, how stem cells maintain quiescence is still poorly understood. Here we show that stem cells in the dentate gyrus of the adult hippocampus actively transcribe the proactivation factor Ascl1 regardless of their activation state. We found that the inhibitor of DNA binding protein Id4 suppresses Ascl1 activity in neural stem cell cultures. Id4 sequesters Ascl1 heterodimerisation partner, promoting the degradation of Ascl1 protein and neural stem cell quiescence. Accordingly, elimination of Id4 from stem cells in the adult hippocampus results in abnormal accumulation of Ascl1 protein and premature stem cell activation. We also found that multiple signalling pathways converge on the regulation of Id4 to control the activity of hippocampal stem cells. Id4 therefore maintains quiescence of adult neural stem cells, in sharp contrast with its role of promoting the proliferation of embryonic neural progenitors.
Project description:Double-stranded RNA-binding proteins are key elements in the intracellular localization of mRNA and its local translation. Staufen is a double-stranded RNA binding protein involved in the localised translation of specific mRNAs during Drosophila early development and neuronal cell fate. The human homologue Staufen1 forms RNA-containing complexes that include proteins involved in translation and motor proteins to allow their movement within the cell, but the mechanism underlying translation repression in these complexes is poorly understood. Here we show that human Staufen1-containing complexes contain essential elements of the gene silencing apparatus, like Ago1-3 proteins, and we describe a set of miRNAs specifically associated to complexes containing human Staufen1. Among these, miR124 stands out as particularly relevant because it appears enriched in human Staufen1 complexes and is over-expressed upon differentiation of human neuroblastoma cells in vitro. In agreement with these findings, we show that expression of human Staufen1 is essential for proper dendritic arborisation during neuroblastoma cell differentiation, yet it is not necessary for maintenance of the differentiated state, and suggest potential human Staufen1 mRNA targets involved in this process. Three or four biological replicates per condition were independently hybridized to GeneChip Human Genome U133 Plus 2.0
Project description:Quiescent stem cells are periodically activated to maintain tissue homeostasis or occasionally called into action upon injury. Molecular mechanisms that constitutively maintain stem cell identity or promote stem cell proliferation and differentiation upon activation have been extensively studied. However, it is unclear how quiescent stem cells maintain identity and reinforce quiescence when they transition from quiescence to activation. Here we show mouse hair follicle stem cell compartment induces a transcription factor, Foxc1, when activated. Importantly, deletion of Foxc1 in the activated but not quiescent stem cells compromises stem cell identity, fails to re-establish quiescence and subsequently drives premature stem cell activation.These findings uncover a dynamic, cell-intrinsic mechanism employed by hair follicle stem cells to reinforce stemness in response to activation. Poly(A)-enriched transcriptome RNA-seq on HFSCs isolated in WT and K14Cre cKO mice at anagen and early telogen stage of hair cycle.