Alternative splicing regulates pluripotent state in pluripotent stem cells

Alternative splicing (AS) generates multiple mature mRNAs from a single pre-mRNA, so AS is the main contributor for the diversity of the proteins, participating in most of the cellular processes. For pluripotent stem cells (PSCs), great effort has been made to search for pluripotency-related genes and their regulatory mechanisms. However, the sophisticated regulation still remains to be clear. Recent studies indicate that stem cells undergo a unique AS pattern and have a different protein expression profile from differentiated cells, giving a new clue that AS switching or AS itself may play a significant role in the processes of differentiation and somatic reprogramming. Indeed, accumulating evidences prove that AS plays critical roles in maintaining pluripotent homeostasis in PSCs. In this review, we summarized recent researches on AS in ESCs and iPSCs, including some distinct AS events in pluripotent cells, and then discussed the new progress on mechanisms for AS in ESCs and iPSCs differentiation and somatic reprogramming.