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Updated: Aug 12, 2025
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Prediction and Validation of Gene Regulatory Elements Activated During Retinoic Acid Induced Embryonic Stem Cell Differentiation
Published on: June 21, 2016
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T-REX17 is a transiently expressed non-coding RNA essential for human endoderm formation
Alexandro Landshammer1,2, Adriano Bolondi1,2, Helene Kretzmer1
1Department of Genome Regulation, Max Planck Institute for Molecular Genetics, Berlin, Germany.
Elife
|January 31, 2023
Summary
Researchers discovered a new long non-coding RNA, T-REX17, crucial for early human endoderm development. Its absence disrupts differentiation, highlighting its essential role in regulating endodermal cell fate.
Area of Science:
- Developmental Biology
- Genomics
- RNA Biology
Background:
- Long non-coding RNAs (lncRNAs) are key regulators of biological processes like embryonic development.
- Genome-wide lncRNA annotation is incomplete, with many loci poorly characterized.
- SOX17 is a critical transcription factor in endoderm development.
Purpose of the Study:
- To discover and characterize novel lncRNAs involved in early human endoderm differentiation.
- To investigate the function of a newly identified lncRNA, T-REX17, in relation to SOX17.
Main Methods:
- Bioinformatic analysis to identify unannotated lncRNAs.
- RNA sequencing to analyze gene expression changes.
- Functional assays to assess the impact of lncRNA loss-of-function.
Main Results:
- Discovery of T-REX17, a lncRNA transcribed upstream of SOX17.
- T-REX17 expression is restricted to early definitive endoderm and induced by SOX17.
- Loss of T-REX17 impairs endoderm differentiation, alters transcriptome, and affects signaling pathways.
Conclusions:
- T-REX17 is a transiently expressed, essential non-coding regulator in early human endoderm differentiation.
- T-REX17 plays critical roles in endodermal cell function independent of SOX17.
- This finding advances understanding of lncRNA function in developmental processes.
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