The miR-290 and miR-302 clusters are essential for reprogramming of fibroblasts to induced pluripotent stem cells

• DOI: 10.1093/stmcls/sxae080
• Publication Date: 2025-03-04T23:36:11Z
• Authors: Julia Ye; Ryan M Boileau; Ronald J Parchem; Robert L Judson-T...; Robert Blelloch
• Keywords: Reprogramming

The miR-290 and miR-302 clusters of microRNAs are highly expressed in naïve primed pluripotent stem cells, respectively. Ectopic expression the embryonic cell (ESC)-specific cycle regulating family arising from these two dramatically enhances reprogramming both mouse human somatic cells to induced pluripotency. Here, we used genetic knockouts dissect requirement for during fibroblasts into (iPSCs) with retrovirally introduced Oct4, Sox2, Klf4. Knockout either cluster alone did not negatively impact efficiency reprogramming. Resulting appeared identical their ESC microRNA knockout counterparts. In contrast, combined loss blocked formation iPSCs. While rare double clones could be isolated, they showed a reduced proliferation rate, persistent inability fully silence exogenously pluripotency factors, transcriptome distinct individual or mutant Taken together, our data show that essential yet interchangeable state.