交替剪接对干细胞多能性维持与谱系分化的调控

Regulation of Stem Cell Pluripotency Maintenance and Cell Lineage Differentiation by Alternative Splicing

交替剪接是转录后修饰的一个重要过程,它很好的解释了基因数量有限性和蛋白质多样性之间巨大差异的问题。交替剪接能够调控细胞的多种生物学行为,比如增殖、分化和发育等,而且与许多疾病的发生相关,包括癌症。干细胞多能性维持和分化的研究大多集中在转录因子、染色质重塑和非编码RNA上,交替剪接概念的引入为干细胞研究提供了一个新的视角。该文综述了干细胞交替剪接调控的最新研究,首先简述了不同类型的干细胞(全能干细胞、多能干细胞和专能干细胞)中存在的交替剪接事件;其次,从四个方面阐述了交替剪接对干细胞多能性的调控;最后,系统地总结了干细胞向神经组织、肌肉组织、造血系统、脂肪组织和骨组织分化过程中发生的交替剪接事件。这些研究充分说明了未来干细胞领域的研究中,交替剪接是不可或缺的一部分。

Alternative splicing is an important process of post-transcriptional modification. It provides a good explanation for the significant difference between the limited number of genes and the protein diversity. Several biological behaviors are regulated by alternative splicing, such as proliferation, differentiation and development. As well as, the occurrence of many diseases are related with alternative splicing, including cancer. The studies of stem cell pluripotency maintenance and cell lineage differentiation mostly focus on transcription factors, chromatin remodeling, and non-coding RNA. Alternative splicing provides a new sight for stem cell study. The text summarized newest researches on regulation of stem cell by alternative splicing. First alternative splicing events were existed in different kinds of stem cells, including totipotent stem cells, pluripotent stem cells and progenitor cells. Next, the regulation of stem cell by alternative splicing was elaborated from four aspects. Finally, the splicing events during cell lineage differentiation of stem cells were summed up, including neural progenitor differentiation, cardiac precursor differentiation, myogenic differentiation, adipocyte differentiation and bone differentiation. All of these studies suggested that alternative splicing might play key roles in stem cell research in the future.