SRp20 is a splicing factor belonging to the highly conserved family of SR proteins [1] [2] [3] [4], which have multiple roles in the regulation of constitutive and alternative splicing in vivo. It has been suggested that SR proteins are involved in bringing together the splice sites during spliceosome assembly [5]. SR proteins show partial redundancy, as each single SR protein can restore splicing activity to a splicing-deficient cytoplasmic extract (termed S-100 extract). Nevertheless, several studies demonstrate that individual SR proteins have different effects on the selection of specific alternative splice sites, and they recognize distinct RNA sequences [6] [7] [8] [9] [10] [11] [12]. Also, inactivation of two SR proteins, B52/SRp55 in Drosophila [13] or ASF/SF2 in the chicken cell line DT40 [14], is lethal, indicating the existence of nonredundant functions. Here, using Cre-loxP-mediated recombination in mice to inactivate the SRp20 gene, we found that it is essential for mouse development. Mutant preimplantation embryos failed to form blastocysts and died at the morula stage. Immunofluorescent staining showed that SRp20 is present in oocytes and early stages of embryonic development. This is the first report of mice deficient for a member of the SR protein family. Our experiments confirm that, although similar in structure, the SR proteins are not functionally redundant.

Pluripotent stem cells are derived from culture of early embryos or the germline and can be induced by reprogramming of somatic cells. Barriers to reprogramming that stabilize the differentiated state and have tumor suppression functions are expected to exist. However, we have a limited understanding of what such barriers might be. To find novel barriers to reprogramming to pluripotency, we compared the transcriptional profiles of the mouse germline with pluripotent and somatic cells, in vivo and in vitro. There is a remarkable global expression of the transcriptional program for pluripotency in primordial germ cells (PGCs). We identify parallels between PGC reprogramming to pluripotency and human germ cell tumorigenesis, including the loss of LATS2, a tumor suppressor kinase of the Hippo pathway. We show that knockdown of LATS2 increases the efficiency of induction of pluripotency in human cells. LATS2 RNAi, unlike p53 RNAi, specifically enhances the generation of fully reprogrammed iPS cells without accelerating cell proliferation. We further show that LATS2 represses reprogramming in human cells by post-transcriptionally antagonizing TAZ but not YAP, two downstream effectors of the Hippo pathway. These results reveal transcriptional parallels between germ cell transformation and the generation of iPS cells and indicate that the Hippo pathway constitutes a barrier to cellular reprogramming.

microRNAs (miRNAs) are critical to heart development and disease. Emerging research indicates that regulated precursor processing can give rise to an unexpected diversity of miRNA variants. We subjected small RNA from murine HL-1 cardiomyocyte cells to next generation sequencing to investigate the relevance of such diversity to cardiac biology. ∼40 million tags were mapped to known miRNA hairpin sequences as deposited in miRBase version 16, calling 403 generic miRNAs as appreciably expressed. Hairpin arm bias broadly agreed with miRBase annotation, although 44 miR* were unexpectedly abundant (>20% of tags); conversely, 33 -5p/-3p annotated hairpins were asymmetrically expressed. Overall, variability was infrequent at the 5′ start but common at the 3′ end of miRNAs (5.2% and 52.3% of tags, respectively). Nevertheless, 105 miRNAs showed marked 5′ isomiR expression (>20% of tags). Among these was miR-133a, a miRNA with important cardiac functions, and we demonstrated differential mRNA targeting by two of its prevalent 5′ isomiRs. Analyses of miRNA termini and base-pairing patterns around Drosha and Dicer cleavage regions confirmed the known bias towards uridine at the 5′ most position of miRNAs, as well as supporting the thermodynamic asymmetry rule for miRNA strand selection and a role for local structural distortions in fine tuning miRNA processing. We further recorded appreciable expression of 5 novel miR*, 38 extreme variants and 8 antisense miRNAs. Analysis of genome-mapped tags revealed 147 novel candidate miRNAs. In summary, we revealed pronounced sequence diversity among cardiomyocyte miRNAs, knowledge of which will underpin future research into the mechanisms involved in miRNA biogenesis and, importantly, cardiac function, disease and therapy.

Mechanisms of initial cell fate decisions differ among species. To gain insights into lineage allocation in humans, we derived ten human embryonic stem cell lines (designated UCSFB1-10) from single blastomeres of four 8-cell embryos and one 12-cell embryo from a single couple. Compared with numerous conventional lines from blastocysts, they had unique gene expression and DNA methylation patterns that were, in part, indicative of trophoblast competence. At a transcriptional level, UCSFB lines from different embryos were often more closely related than those from the same embryo. As predicted by the transcriptomic data, immunolocalization of EOMES, T brachyury, GDF15 and active β-catenin revealed differential expression among blastomeres of 8- to 10-cell human embryos. The UCSFB lines formed derivatives of the three germ layers and CDX2-positive progeny, from which we derived the first human trophoblast stem cell line. Our data suggest heterogeneity among early-stage blastomeres and that the UCSFB lines have unique properties, indicative of a more immature state than conventional lines.