Abstract
Motor neurons (MNs) are unique because they project their axons outside of the CNS to innervate the peripheral muscles. Limb-innervating lateral motor column MNs (LMC-MNs) travel substantially to innervate distal limb mesenchyme. How LMC-MNs fine-tune the balance between survival and apoptosis while wiring the sensorimotor circuit en route remains unclear. Here, we show that the mir-17~92 cluster is enriched in embryonic stem cell (ESC)-derived LMC-MNs and that conditional mir-17~92 deletion in MNs results in the death of LMC-MNs invitro and invivo. mir-17~92 overexpression rescues MNs from apoptosis, which occurs spontaneously during embryonic development. PTEN is a primary target of mir-17~92 responsible for LMC-MN degeneration. Additionally, mir-17~92 directly targets components of E3 ubiquitin ligases, affecting PTEN subcellular localization through monoubiquitination. This miRNA-mediated regulation modulates both target expression and target subcellular localization, providing LMC-MNs with an intricate defensive mechanism that controls their survival.
Original language | English |
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Pages (from-to) | 1305-1318 |
Number of pages | 14 |
Journal | Cell Reports |
Volume | 11 |
Issue number | 8 |
DOIs | |
State | Published - 26 May 2015 |