Dong Shuai, Sun Yuetong, Liu Chang, Li Yanli, Yu Shanshan, Zhang Qi, Xu Yan
Biotherapy Centre, The Third Affiliated Hospital, Sun Yat-sen University, Guangzhou, China.
Biotherapy Centre, The Third Affiliated Hospital, Sun Yat-sen University, Guangzhou, China; Cell-gene Therapy Translational Medicine Research Centre, The Third Affiliated Hospital, Sun Yat-sen University, Guangzhou, China; Guangdong Provincial Key Laboratory of Liver Disease Research, The Third Affiliated Hospital, Sun Yat-sen University, Guangzhou, China.
Differentiation. 2023 Sep-Oct;133:77-87. doi: 10.1016/j.diff.2023.07.001. Epub 2023 Jul 13.
Precise spatiotemporal control of gene expression patterns is critical for normal development. Pluripotent stem cells, including embryonic stem cells (ESCs) and induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs), with the ability of unlimited self-renewal and differentiation into any cell type, provide a unique tool for understanding the underlying mechanism of development and disease in a dish. N6-methyl-adenosine (mA) modification is the most extensive internal mRNA modification, which regulates almost all aspects of mRNA metabolism and thus extensively participates in gene expression regulation. However, the role of mA during cardiogenesis still needs to be fully elucidated. Here, we found that core components of mA methyltransferase decreased during cardiomyocyte differentiation. Impeding mA deposition, by either deleting the mA methyltransferase Mettl3 or overexpressing mA demethylase alkB homolog 5 (Alkbh5), at early stages of cardiac differentiation of mouse pluripotent stem cells, led to inhibition of cardiac gene activation and retardation of the outgrowth of embryoid bodies, whereas interfering mA modification at later stages of differentiation had minimal effects. Consistently, stage-specific inhibition of METTL3 with METTL3 inhibitor STM2457 during human ESCs (hESCs) cardiac differentiation demonstrated a similarly pivotal role of METTL3 for the induction of mesodermal cells while dispensable function for later stages. In summary, our study reveals a stage-specific requirement of mA on the cardiac differentiation of pluripotent stem cells and demonstrates that precise tuning of mA level is critical for cardiac differentiation.
Biochem Biophys Res Commun. 2019-5-29
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