Artificial acceleration of mammalian cell reprogramming by bacterial proteins. Mus musculus

Mammalian cell reprogramming to pluripotency can be achieved by overexpression of a set of defined transcription factors (Yamanaka factors). Various gene products regulate progression of this process. Some small molecule compounds have been identified to influence it through interacting cellular proteins by library screenings. Although such compounds are useful to reveal mechanisms underlying reprogramming as well as enhancing reprogramming efficiency, the screening usually requires huge amount of compounds to be tested to identify an effective one (ex., one effective molecule in several tens of thousands). Here, we show a case report that there are gene products that can affect efficiency of mammalian cell reprogramming in a xeno-species. Thirty genes specific for a bacterium Wolbachia pipientis, as a pilot trial, were forcedly expressed along with Yamanaka factors in mammalian cells. As a result, we found that 8 Wolbachia genes affected the reprogramming efficiency either positively or negatively. This is a surprisingly high probability compared with small molecule compounds reported. Although this study is just a case report, it shows that screenings using genes from a xenospecies can be so effective. In principle, use of genes from a xenospecies could be useful for controls of various cellular states such as induction or maintenance of a cell type of interest and development novel drugs. Our findings suggest that systems using genes from xeno-species can be novel strategies for a wide variety of cellular events possibly with a high hit rate. Overall design: Total RNAs of N31 cells ectopically expressing EGFP and W20 were used to analyze effects of forced expressions of W20 on changes of gene expressions.