A quantitative model of cellular decision making in direct neuronal reprogramming

Abstract The direct reprogramming of adult skin fibroblasts to neurons is thought to be controlled by a small set of interacting gene regulators. Here, we investigate how the interaction dynamics between these regulating factors coordinate cellular decision making in direct neuronal reprogramming. W...

Descripción completa

Guardado en:
Detalles Bibliográficos
Autores principales: Adriaan Merlevede, Emilie M. Legault, Viktor Drugge, Roger A. Barker, Janelle Drouin-Ouellet, Victor Olariu
Formato: article
Lenguaje:EN
Publicado: Nature Portfolio 2021
Materias:
R
Q
Acceso en línea:https://doaj.org/article/b0ada2c304c64a60b053635df9de28ff
Etiquetas: Agregar Etiqueta
Sin Etiquetas, Sea el primero en etiquetar este registro!
Descripción
Sumario:Abstract The direct reprogramming of adult skin fibroblasts to neurons is thought to be controlled by a small set of interacting gene regulators. Here, we investigate how the interaction dynamics between these regulating factors coordinate cellular decision making in direct neuronal reprogramming. We put forward a quantitative model of the governing gene regulatory system, supported by measurements of mRNA expression. We found that nPTB needs to feed back into the direct neural conversion network most likely via PTB in order to accurately capture quantitative gene interaction dynamics and correctly predict the outcome of various overexpression and knockdown experiments. This was experimentally validated by nPTB knockdown leading to successful neural conversion. We also proposed a novel analytical technique to dissect system behaviour and reveal the influence of individual factors on resulting gene expression. Overall, we demonstrate that computational analysis is a powerful tool for understanding the mechanisms of direct (neuronal) reprogramming, paving the way for future models that can help improve cell conversion strategies.