Volume 26, No 2, Feb 2016
ISSN: 1001-0602
EISSN: 1748-7838 2018
impact factor 17.848*
(Clarivate Analytics, 2019)
Volume 26 Issue 2, February 2016: 171-189
ORIGINAL ARTICLES
Comprehensive profiling reveals mechanisms of SOX2-mediated cell fate specification in human ESCs and NPCs
Chenlin Zhou1,4,*, Xiaoqin Yang2,*, Yiyang Sun1,4, Hongyao Yu3, Yong Zhang2 and Ying Jin1,3,4
1Key Laboratory of Stem Cell Biology, CAS Center for Excellence in Molecular Cell Science, Institute of Health Sciences, Shanghai Institutes for Biological Sciences, Chinese Academy of Sciences/Shanghai JiaoTong University School of Medicine, Shanghai 200031, China
2School of Life Sciences and Technology, Tongji University, Shanghai 200092, China
3Laboratory of Molecular Developmental Biology, Shanghai JiaoTong University School of Medicine, Shanghai 200025, China
4University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100049, China
Correspondence: Ying Jin, Tel: 86-21-54923342 E-mail: yjin@sibs.ac.cn; Yong Zhang, Tel: 86-21-65981196(yzhang@tongji.edu.cn)
SOX2 is a key regulator of multiple types of stem cells, especially embryonic stem cells (ESCs) and neural progenitor cells (NPCs). Understanding the mechanism underlying the function of SOX2 is of great importance for realizing the full potential of ESCs and NPCs. Here, through genome-wide comparative studies, we show that SOX2 executes its distinct functions in human ESCs (hESCs) and hESC-derived NPCs (hNPCs) through cell type- and stage-dependent transcription programs. Importantly, SOX2 suppresses non-neural lineages in hESCs and regulates neurogenesis from hNPCs by inhibiting canonical Wnt signaling. In hESCs, SOX2 achieves such inhibition by direct transcriptional regulation of important Wnt signaling modulators, WLS and SFRP2. Moreover, SOX2 ensures pluripotent epigenetic landscapes via interacting with histone variant H2A.Z and recruiting polycomb repressor complex 2 to poise developmental genes in hESCs. Together, our results advance our understanding of the mechanism by which cell type-specific transcription factors control lineage-specific gene expression programs and specify cell fate.
10.1038/cr.2016.15
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