PROBING THE FUNCTIONS OF LIN28 AND JMJD6 IN MOUSE ES CELL

Abstract

The unique identity embryonic stem cells (ESCs) are featured by their pluripotency and self-renewal ability. Oct4/Nanog transcriptional network and epigenetic regulation mainly control the ESC identity. However, there still are unknown factors which are required for ESC identity. Two proteins were studied in my project. The first one is a RNA-binding protein Lin28 which is used as a reprogramming factor. The second protein is a jumonji domain-containing factor Jmjd6 which was previously shown as a histone arginine demethylase.

In the first part, double knockdown Lin28a and Lin28b and subsequent gene expression microarray have indentified numerous potential Lin28 downstream genes in ESCs. My study has also revealed that Lin28 may regulate ESC self-renewal in both miRNA dependent and independent ways.