Rif1 interacts with non-canonical polycomb repressive complex PRC1.6 to regulate mouse embryonic stem cells fate potential

Mouse embryonic stem cells(mESCs)cycle in and out of a transient 2-cell(2C)-like totipotent state,driven by a com-plex genetic circuit involves both the coding and repetitive sections of the genome.While a vast array of regulators,including the multi-functional protein Rif1,has been reported to influence the switch of fate potential,how they act in concert to achieve this cellular plasticity remains elusive.Here,by modularizing the known totipotency regulatory factors,we identify an unprecedented functional connection between Rif1 and the non-canonical polycomb repres-sive complex PRC1.6.Downregulation of the expression of either Rif1 or PRC1.6 subunits imposes similar impacts on the transcriptome of mESCs.The LacO-LacI induced ectopic colocalization assay detects a specific interaction between Rif1 and Pcgf6,bolstering the intactness of the PRC1.6 complex.Chromatin immunoprecipitation followed by sequencing(ChIP-seq)analysis further reveals that Rif1 is required for the accurate targeting of Pcgf6 to a group of genomic loci encompassing many genes involved in the regulation of the 2C-like state.Depletion of Rif1 or Pcgf6 not only activates 2C genes such as Zscan4 and Zfp352,but also derepresses a group of the endogenous retroviral element MERVL,a key marker for totipotency.Collectively,our findings discover that Rif1 can serve as a novel auxiliary component in the PRC1.6 complex to restrain the genetic circuit underlying totipotent fate potential,shedding new mechanistic insights into its function in regulating the cellular plasticity of embryonic stem cells.

Human embryos in a dish - modeling early embryonic development with pluripotent stem cells

Stem cell-based embryo models present new opportunities to study early embryonic development.In a recent study,Kagawa et al.identified an approach to create human pluripotent stem cell-based blastoids that resemble the human blastocysts.These blastoids efficiently generated analogs of the EPI,TE,PrE lineages with transcriptomes highly similar to those found in vivo.Furthermore,the formation of these lineages followed the same sequence and pace of blas-tocyst development,and was also dependent on the same pathways required for lineage specification.Finally,the blastoids were capable of attaching to stimulated endometrial cells to mimic the process of implantation.While more comprehensive analysis is needed to confirm its validity and usefulness,this new blastoid system presents the latest development in the attempt to model early human embryogenesis in vitro.