Naive and primed murine pluripotent stem cells have distinct miRNA expression profiles.
Over the last years, the microRNA (miRNA) pathway has emerged as a key component of the regulatory network of pluripotency. Although clearly distinct states of pluripotency have been described in vivo and ex vivo, differences in miRNA expression profiles associated with the developmental modulation of pluripotency have not been extensively studied so far. Here, we performed deep sequencing to profile miRNA expression in naive (embryonic stem cell [ESC]) and primed (epiblast stem cell [EpiSC]) pluripotent stem cells derived from mouse embryos of identical genetic background. We developed a graphical representation method allowing the rapid identification of miRNAs with an atypical profile including mirtrons, a small nucleolar RNA (snoRNA)-derived miRNA, and miRNAs whose biogenesis may differ between ESC and EpiSC. Comparison of mature miRNA profiles revealed that ESCs and EpiSCs exhibit very different miRNA signatures with one third of miRNAs being differentially expressed between the two cell types. Notably, differential expression of several clusters, including miR290-295, miR17-92, miR302/367, and a large repetitive cluster on chromosome 2, was observed. Our analysis also showed that differentiation priming of EpiSC compared to ESC is evidenced by changes in miRNA expression. These dynamic changes in miRNAs signature are likely to reflect both redundant and specific roles of miRNAs in the fine-tuning of pluripotency during development.
INRA, UMR1198 Biologie du Développement et Reproduction, Jouy-en-Josas, France.
Alice
A
Jouneau
Constance
C
Ciaudo
Odile
O
Sismeiro
Vincent
V
Brochard
Luc
L
Jouneau
Sandrine
S
Vandormael-Pournin
Jean-Yves
JY
Coppée
Qi
Q
Zhou
Edith
E
Heard
Christophe
C
Antoniewski
Michel
M
Cohen-Tannoudji
D000818:Animals; D002454:Cell Differentiation / Q000235:genetics; D002460:Cell Line; D030561:Databases, Nucleic Acid; D053595:Embryonic Stem Cells / Q000166:cytology / Q000378:metabolism*; D020869:Gene Expression Profiling / Q000379:methods; D051379:Mice; D035683:MicroRNAs / Q000096:biosynthesis* / Q000235:genetics*; D039904:Pluripotent Stem Cells / Q000166:cytology / Q000378:metabolism*
D035683:MicroRNAs