Discovery of a Novel Long Noncoding RNA as a Marker of Pluripotency.

Pluripotency and self-renewal of embryonic stem cells (ESCs) are marked by core transcription regulators such as Oct4, Sox2, and Nanog. Another important marker of pluripotency is the long noncoding RNA (lncRNA). Here, we ind that a novel long noncoding RNA (lncRNA) is a marker of pluripotency. LncRNA is enriched in ESCs and downregulated during ESC differentiation. By rapid amplification of cDNA ends, we identified the full-length sequence of lncRNA . We further showed that transposable elements at upstream of lncRNA could drive the expression of lncRNA . Furthermore, ESC-specific expression of lncRNA was driven by Oct4 and Sox2. In summary, we identified a novel marker lncRNA of ESCs, which is driven by core pluripotency regulators.