The RNA-Binding Protein NANOS2 Is Required to Maintain Murine Spermatogonial Stem Cells
Aiko Sada,1
Atsushi Suzuki,2
Hitomi Suzuki,3
Yumiko Saga1,3,4,*
Stem cells give rise to differentiated cell types but also preserve
their undifferentiated state through cell self-renewal. With
the use of transgenic mice, we found that the RNA-binding protein
NANOS2 is essential for maintaining spermatogonial stem cells.
Lineage-tracing analyses revealed that undifferentiated spermatogonia
expressing
Nanos2 self-renew and generate the entire spermatogenic
cell lineage. Conditional disruption of postnatal
Nanos2 depleted
spermatogonial stem cell reserves, whereas mouse testes in which
Nanos2 had been overexpressed accumulated spermatogonia with
undifferentiated, stem cell–like properties. Thus, NANOS2
is a key stem cell regulator that is expressed in self-renewing
spermatogonial stem cells and maintains the stem cell state
during murine spermatogenesis.
2 Interdisciplinary Research Center, Yokohama National University, 79-1 Tokiwadai, Hodogaya-ku, Yokohama 240-8501, Japan.
3 Department of Biological Sciences, Graduate School of Science, University of Tokyo, Hongo 7-3-1, Bunkyo-ku, Tokyo, 113-0033, Japan.
4 Division of Mammalian Development, National Institute of Genetics, 1111 Yata, Mishima 411-8540, Japan.
* To whom correspondence should be addressed. E-mail: ysaga{at}lab.nig.ac.jp
