The Essential but Enigmatic Regulatory Role of HERVH in Pluripotency

Document Type

Article

Publication Date

7-30-2021

Publication Title

Trends in Genetics

First page number:

1

Last page number:

10

Abstract

Human specific endogenous retrovirus H (HERVH) is highly expressed in both naive and primed stem cells and is essential for pluripotency. Despite the proven relationship between HERVH expression and pluripotency, there is no single definitive model for the function of HERVH. Instead, several hypotheses of a regulatory function have been put forward including HERVH acting as enhancers, long noncoding RNAs (lncRNAs), and most recently as markers of topologically associating domain (TAD) boundaries. Recently several enhancer-associated lncRNAs have been characterized, which bind to Mediator and are necessary for promoter–enhancer folding interactions. We propose a synergistic model of HERVH function combining relevant findings and discuss the current limitations for its role in regulation, including the lack of evidence for a pluripotency-associated target gene.

Keywords

Endogenous retrovirus; Enhancer; Gene regulation; Mediator topologically associating domain (TAD); Stem cell

Disciplines

Genetics | Genetics and Genomics | Life Sciences

Language

English

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