Abstract
As the first and rate-limiting step in ribosome biogenesis, rDNA transcription undergoes significant dynamic changes during cell pluripotency alteration. Over the past decades, rDNA activity has demonstrated dynamic changes, but most people view it as passive compliance with cellular needs. The evidence for rDNA transcriptional activity determining stem cell pluripotency is growing as research advances, resulting in the arrest of embryonic development and impairment of stem cell lines stemness by rDNA transcription inhibition. The exact mechanism by which rDNA activation influences pluripotency remains unknown. The first objective of this opinion article is to describe rDNA changes in the pathological and physiological course of life, including developmental diseases, tumor genesis, and stem cell differentiation. After that, we propose three hypotheses regarding rDNA regulation of pluripotency: 1) Specialized ribosomes synthesized from rDNA variant, 2) Nucleolar stress induced by the drop of rDNA transcription, 3) Interchromosomal interactions between rDNA and other genes. The pluripotency regulatory center is expected to focus strongly on rDNA. A small molecule inhibitor of rDNA is used to treat tumors caused by abnormal pluripotency activation. By understanding how rDNA regulates pluripotency, we hope to treat developmental diseases and safely apply somatic cell reprogramming in clinical settings.
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Abbreviations
- 5’UTR :
-
5’Untranslated regions
- Act D :
-
Actinomycin D
- ATRA :
-
All-trans-retinoic acid
- AD :
-
Alzheimer's disease
- ALS :
-
Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis
- ASD :
-
Autism spectrum disorder
- CIN :
-
Cervical intraepithelial neoplasia
- 3C :
-
Chromosome Conformation Capture
- 4C :
-
Chromosome conformation capture on chip
- DFC :
-
Dense fibrillar center
- EGA :
-
Embryonic gene activation
- ESC :
-
Embryonic stem cells
- EGF :
-
Epidermal growth factor
- FC :
-
Fibrillar center
- FMRP :
-
Fragile-X mental retardation protein
- FTD :
-
Frontotemporal dementia
- GO :
-
Gene Ontology
- GSC :
-
Germline stem cells
- GC :
-
Granular component
- HSC :
-
Hematopoietic stem cells
- HGSOC :
-
High grade serous ovarian cancer
- Hi-C :
-
High-throughput chromatin conformation capture technology
- HDACi :
-
Histone deacetylase inhibitor
- HCC :
-
Human hepatocellular carcinoma
- h-iPSCs :
-
Human induce pluripotent stem cells
- HD :
-
Huntington's disease
- iPSCs :
-
Induced pluripotent stem cells
- IR :
-
Ionizing irradiation
- mTOR :
-
Mammalian target of rapamycin
- MET :
-
Mesenchymal-to-epithelial transition
- NBS1 :
-
Nijmegen breakage syndrome protein 1
- NORs :
-
Nucleolar organizer regions
- OSCC :
-
Oral squamous cell carcinoma
- PD :
-
Parkinson's disease
- PMA :
-
Phorbol 12-myristate 13-acetate
- PRC2 :
-
Polycomb repressive complex 2
- pre-rRNA :
-
Precursor rRNA
- SL-1 :
-
Promoter-selectivity factor
- RHS7 :
-
rad50 hypersensitive site 7
- RPS :
-
Ribosomal proteins
- Ribo-seq :
-
Ribosome profiling sequencing
- pol I :
-
RNA polymerase I complex
- SCNT :
-
Somatic cell nuclear transfer
- SIM :
-
Structural illumination superresolution microscopy
- T-ALL :
-
T-cell acute lymphoblastic leukemia
- TCS :
-
Treacher Collins Syndrome
- TGC :
-
Trophoblast giant cells
- TIP5 :
-
TTF-I-interacting protein 5
- Tau :
-
Tubulin associated units
- WGS :
-
Whole-genome sequencing
- ZGA :
-
Zygotic genome activation
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Acknowledgements
We thank all the members in L.L.’s laboratory. This work was financially supported by the Key projects of Heilongjiang Natural Science Foundation (NO. ZD2021C005).
Funding
This work was supported by the Key projects of Heilongjiang Natural Science Foundation (NO. ZD2021C005).
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YC Sun: Article writer who drafted and mainly revised the work;
XL Hu: Participate in discussion and revision of articles;
D Qiu: Participate in revision and performed the literature search;
ZJ Zhang: Participate in discussion;
L Lei: Participate in article theme design, discussion and revision.
All authors read and approved the final manuscript.
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Sun, Y., Hu, X., Qiu, D. et al. rDNA Transcription in Developmental Diseases and Stem Cells. Stem Cell Rev and Rep 19, 839–852 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12015-023-10504-6
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12015-023-10504-6