Genome-wide profiling of genes during differentiation of wild type (WT) murine embryonic stem cells (ESCs), scrambled control (SCR) ESCs and Mageb16-depleted (KD) ESCs

The Melanoma-associated Antigen gene family (MAGE) generally encodes for tumour antigens. We recently have identified one of the MAGE gene members, Mageb16 to be highly expressed in undifferentiated murine embryonic stem cells (mESCs). The role of Mageb16 for the differentiation of the pluripotent stem cells is completely unknown. Here we demonstrate that Mageb16 (41 kDa) is distributed in cytosol and/or in surface membrane in undifferentiated mESCs. A transcriptome study was performed with differentiated short hairpin RNA (shRNA)-mediated Mageb16 knockdown (KD ESCs) and scrambled control (SCR) ESCs until a period of 22 days. Mageb16 KD ESCs mainly differentiated towards mesodermal derivatives such as cardiovascular lineages. Mesoderm-oriented differentiation initiated biological processes such as adipogenesis, osteogenesis, limb morphogenesis and spermatogenesis were significantly enriched in the differentiated Mageb16 KD ESCs. Cardiomyogenesis in differentiated KD mESCs was stronger when compared to differentiated SCR and wild mESCs. The expression of non-coding RNA (ncRNA) Lin28a and other epigenetic regulatory genes, nucleocytoplasmic trafficking and genes participating in spermatogenesis have also declined faster in the differentiating Mageb16 KD ESCs. We conclude that Mageb16 plays a crucial role for differentiation of ESCs, specifically to the mesodermal lineages. Regulative epigenetic networks and nucleocytoplasmic modifications induced by Mageb16 may play a role for the critical role of Mageb16 for the ESCs differentiation.

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Gaspar JA, Srinivasan SP, Sureshkumar P, Doss MX, Hescheler J, Papadopoulos S, Sachinidis A