Glioma is the most common primary malignant brain tumor and arises throughout the central nervous system (CNS). Recent focus on stem-like glioma cells has implicated neural stem cells (NSCs), a minor precursor population restricted to germinal zones, as a potential source of gliomas. In this review, we will focus on the relationship between oligodendrocyte progenitor cells (OPCs), the largest population of cycling glial progenitors in the postnatal brain, and gliomas. Recent studies suggest that OPCs can give rise to gliomas. Furthermore, signaling pathways often associated with NSCs also play key roles during OPC lineage development. Recent advances suggesting that gliomas can undergo a switch from progenitor- to stem-like phenotype after therapy, implicating that an OPC-origin is more likely than previously recognized. Future in-depth studies of OPC biology may shed light on the etiology of OPC-derived gliomas and reveal new therapeutic avenues.
TRIM71 is an important RNA-binding protein in development and disease, yet its direct targets have not been investigated globally. Here we describe a number of disease and developmentallyrelevant TRIM71 RNA targets such as the MBNL family, LIN28B, MDM2, and TCF7L2. We describe a new role for TRIM71 as capable of positive or negative RNA regulation depending on the RNA target. We found that TRIM71 co-precipitated with IMP1 which could explain its multiple mechanisms of RNA regulation, as IMP1 is typically thought to stabilize RNAs. Deletion of the NHL domain of TRIM71 impacted its ability to bind to RNA and RNAs bound by congenital hydrocephalusassociated point mutations in the RNA-binding NHL domain of TRIM71 clustered closely with RNAs bound by the NHL deletion mutant. Our work expands the possible mechanisms by which TRIM71 may regulate RNAs and elucidates further potential RNA targets.
Although many long non-coding RNAs (lncRNAs) exhibit lineage-specific expression, the vast majority remain functionally uncharacterized in the context of development. Here, we report the first described human embryonic stem cell (hESC) lines to repress (CRISPRi) or activate (CRISPRa) transcription during differentiation into all three germ layers, facilitating the modulation of lncRNA expression during early development. We performed an unbiased, genome-wide CRISPRi screen targeting thousands of lncRNA loci expressed during endoderm differentiation. While dozens of lncRNA loci were required for proper differentiation, most differentially expressed lncRNAs were not, supporting the necessity for functional screening instead of relying solely on gene expression analyses. In parallel, we developed a clustering approach to infer mechanisms of action of lncRNA hits based on a variety of genomic features. We subsequently identified and validated FOXD3-AS1 as a functional lncRNA essential for pluripotency and differentiation. Taken together, the cell lines and methodology described herein can be adapted to discover and characterize novel regulators of differentiation into any lineage.
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