Abstract
Embryonic stem cells (ESCs) hold great promise for regenerative medicine. To harness the full therapeutic potential of ESCs, better understanding of the molecular mechanisms underlying the maintenance and differentiation of ESCs is required. Mammalian target of rapamycin (mTOR) is a serine/threonine protein kinase that integrates growth factor receptor signaling with cellular growth and proliferation. Dysregulation of mTOR signaling has been linked to various human diseases including cancer and metabolic syndromes. However, little is known regarding the function of mTOR signaling in the regulation of ES cell differentiation. Here we report that Rictor, a key component of mTORC2, functions as a novel ES cell differentiation promoting factor. Mechanistically, Rictor is able to interact with Prkch and facilitate Prkch phosphorylation at Ser-642. Upon phosphorylation, Prkch promotes Klf4 phosphorylation and inhibits Klf4-dependent E-cadherin expression, thereafter leading to the ES cell differentiation. These findings reveal a novel Rictor–Prkch–Klf4 pathway that plays an important role in the regulation of ES cell differentiation.
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Acknowledgements
This work was supported by the National Science Foundation of China (31501103, 81401518); the Anhui Province Funds for Distinguished Young Scientists (1508085J08); Key Projects of the Outstanding Young Talents in Colleges and Universities (gxyqZD2016058); the Anhui Provincial Natural Science Foundation (1508085QC62); Anhui Science and Technology Plan Project (1604a0802082, 1401045013), and the Doctoral Research Foundation of the Medical University of Anhui (0401062101).
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DHZ and YMZ conceived the idea; YMZ, GB, CY and PW wrote the manuscript; YMZ and LZ performed the experiments; YMZ and PW analyzed the data; JCH and YYW revised the manuscript; DHZ, GPZ and ZYZ designed the experiments and supervised the research.
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Zhu, Y., Wang, P., Zhang, L. et al. Superhero Rictor promotes cellular differentiation of mouse embryonic stem cells. Cell Death Differ 26, 958–968 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41418-018-0177-5
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41418-018-0177-5
