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LeBlanc L, Lee BK, Yu AC, Kim M, Kambhampati AV, Dupont SM, Seruggia D, Ryu BU, Orkin SH, Kim J. Yap1 safeguards mouse embryonic stem cells from excessive apoptosis during differentiation. eLife 2018; 7:40167. [PMID: 30561326 PMCID: PMC6307859 DOI: 10.7554/elife.40167] [Citation(s) in RCA: 22] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/17/2018] [Accepted: 12/17/2018] [Indexed: 12/17/2022] Open
Abstract
Approximately, 30% of embryonic stem cells (ESCs) die after exiting self-renewal, but regulators of this process are not well known. Yap1 is a Hippo pathway transcriptional effector that plays numerous roles in development and cancer. However, its functions in ESC differentiation remain poorly characterized. We first reveal that ESCs lacking Yap1 experience massive cell death upon the exit from self-renewal. We subsequently show that Yap1 contextually protects differentiating, but not self-renewing, ESC from hyperactivation of the apoptotic cascade. Mechanistically, Yap1 strongly activates anti-apoptotic genes via cis-regulatory elements while mildly suppressing pro-apoptotic genes, which moderates the level of mitochondrial priming that occurs during differentiation. Individually modulating the expression of single apoptosis-related genes targeted by Yap1 is sufficient to augment or hinder survival during differentiation. Our demonstration of the context-dependent pro-survival functions of Yap1 during ESC differentiation contributes to our understanding of the balance between survival and death during cell fate changes.
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Affiliation(s)
- Lucy LeBlanc
- Department of Molecular Biosciences, The University of Texas at Austin, Austin, United States.,Institute for Cellular and Molecular Biology, Center for Systems and Synthetic Biology, The University of Texas at Austin, Austin, United States
| | - Bum-Kyu Lee
- Department of Molecular Biosciences, The University of Texas at Austin, Austin, United States.,Institute for Cellular and Molecular Biology, Center for Systems and Synthetic Biology, The University of Texas at Austin, Austin, United States
| | - Andy C Yu
- Department of Molecular Biosciences, The University of Texas at Austin, Austin, United States
| | - Mijeong Kim
- Department of Molecular Biosciences, The University of Texas at Austin, Austin, United States.,Institute for Cellular and Molecular Biology, Center for Systems and Synthetic Biology, The University of Texas at Austin, Austin, United States
| | - Aparna V Kambhampati
- Department of Molecular Biosciences, The University of Texas at Austin, Austin, United States
| | - Shannon M Dupont
- Department of Molecular Biosciences, The University of Texas at Austin, Austin, United States
| | - Davide Seruggia
- Division of Hematology/Oncology, Boston Children's Hospital, Boston, United States.,Harvard Stem Cell Institute, Harvard Medical School, Boston, United States.,Department of Pediatric Oncology, Dana-Farber Cancer Institute (DFCI), Boston, United States
| | - Byoung U Ryu
- Department of Molecular Biosciences, The University of Texas at Austin, Austin, United States
| | - Stuart H Orkin
- Division of Hematology/Oncology, Boston Children's Hospital, Boston, United States.,Howard Hughes Medical Institute, Boston, United States.,Department of Pediatric Oncology, Dana-Farber Cancer Institute (DFCI), Boston, United States.,Harvard Stem Cell Institute, Harvard Medical School, Boston, United States
| | - Jonghwan Kim
- Department of Molecular Biosciences, The University of Texas at Austin, Austin, United States.,Institute for Cellular and Molecular Biology, Center for Systems and Synthetic Biology, The University of Texas at Austin, Austin, United States
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