Transcription factors interfering with dedifferentiation induce direct conversion. Mus musculus

Although transcription factor(TF)s regulate differentiation-related processes, including dedifferentiation and direct conversion, functional interactions between TFs regulating these processes are not well understood. Here we show that TFs preventing dedifferentiation are able to induce direct conversion. Using a neural lineage cell line and a large number of TFs expressed in it, we found a subset of TFs whose overexpression strongly interfered with dedifferentiation triggered by a procedure to induce induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSC), through a maintenance mechanism of the cell-type-specific transcriptional profile. Strikingly, the maintenance activity of the interfering TF set was strong enough to induce the cell line-specific transcriptional profile when overexpressed in a heterologous cell type. In addition, TFs that interfered with dedifferentiation in hepatic lineage cells involved known TFs with induction activity for hepatic lineage cells. Our results suggest that dedifferentiation suppresses a cell-type-specific transcriptional profile, which is primarily maintained by a small subset of TFs capable of inducing direct conversion. We anticipate that this functional correlation might be applicable in various cell types, which may include cancer cells, and might facilitate identification of TFs with induction activity to understand differentiation and tumorigenesis Overall design: Examination of binding of 3 transcription factors and histone modifications in Neural progenitor like cells.