Project description:The role of mitochondria dynamics and its molecular regulators remains largely unknown during naïve-to-primed pluripotent cell interconversion. Here we report that mitochondrial MTCH2 is a regulator of mitochondrial fusion, essential for the naïve-to-primed interconversion of murine embryonic stem cells (ESCs). During this interconversion, wild-type ESCs elongate their mitochondria and slightly alter their glutamine utilization. In contrast, MTCH2-/- ESCs fail to elongate their mitochondria and to alter their metabolism, maintaining high levels of histone acetylation and expression of naïve pluripotency markers. Importantly, enforced mitochondria elongation by the pro-fusion protein Mitofusin (MFN) 2 or by a dominant negative form of the pro-fission protein dynamin-related protein (DRP) 1 is sufficient to drive the exit from naïve pluripotency of both MTCH2-/- and wild-type ESCs. Taken together, our data indicate that mitochondria elongation, governed by MTCH2, plays a critical role and constitutes an early driving force in the naïve-to-primed pluripotency interconversion of murine ESCs.
Project description:The importance of unanchored Ub in innate immunity has been shown only for a limited number of unanchored Ub-interactors. We investigated what additional cellular factors interact with unanchored Ub and whether unanchored Ub plays a broader role in innate immunity. To identify unanchored Ub-interacting factors from murine lungs, we used His-tagged recombinant poly-Ub chains as bait. These chains were mixed with lung tissue lysates and protein complexes were isolated with Ni-NTA beads. Sample elutions were subjected to mass spectrometry (LC-MSMS) analysis.
