The regulation of tDNA transcription during the directed differentiation of stem cells.

Abstract

The human genome consists of 625 tDNA copies that encode 51 distinct isoacceptor families. Recent studies demonstrated that changes in chromatin structure during cellular differentiation can alter the expression of these tDNA. However, the mechanism by which tDNA can be differentially regulated remains unclear. Here we used the directed differentiation of pluripotent human embryonic stem cells (hESCs) towards the endoderm lineage as a model system to study the developmental regulation of individual tDNA. We demonstrated a significant change in the Pol III occupancy at 49 tDNA (22 reduced and 27 increased). The regulation of tDNA did not correlate with changes in TFIIIB or TFIIIC occupancy, H3K4me3, or H3K27me3 levels. However, tDNA that had an increase in Pol III binding were preferentially found within strong CTCF-COHESIN chromatin loops. The knockdown of either Ctcf or Rad21 in mouse tail tip fibroblasts had similar effects on changes in tRNA levels. We identified 7 isoacceptors that were differentially expressed during the directed differentiation of hESCs. The open reading frames of the ribosomal protein genes, which are translationally repressed during hESC differentiation, are enriched for codons that are decoded by these downregulated isoacceptors. Thus, translation efficiency during cellular differentiation may be affected by changes in tDNA regulation.