期刊名称:Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences
印刷版ISSN:0027-8424
电子版ISSN:1091-6490
出版年度:2010
卷号:107
期号:37
页码:16320-16324
DOI:10.1073/pnas.1002176107
语种:English
出版社:The National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America
摘要:Tat activating regulatory DNA-binding protein (Tardbp or TDP-43), a highly conserved metazoan DNA/RNA binding protein thought to be involved in RNA transcription and splicing, has been linked to the pathophysiology of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis and frontotemporal lobar degeneration and is essential for early embryonic development. However, neither the physiological role of TDP-43 in the adult nor its downstream targets are well defined. To address these questions, we developed conditional Tardbp-KO mice and embryonic stem (ES) cell models. Here, we show that postnatal deletion of Tardbp in mice caused dramatic loss of body fat followed by rapid death. Moreover, conditional Tardbp-KO ES cells failed to proliferate. Importantly, high-throughput DNA sequencing analysis on the transcriptome of ES cells lacking Tardbp revealed a set of downstream targets of TDP-43. We show that Tbc1d1, a gene known to mediate leanness and linked to obesity, is down-regulated in the absence of TDP-43. Collectively, our results establish that TDP-43 is critical for fat metabolism and ES cell survival.