Abstract

Genome-encoded microRNAs (miRNAs) provide a posttranscriptional regulatory layer that controls the differentiation and function of various cellular systems, including hematopoietic cells. miR-142 is one of the most prevalently expressed miRNAs within the hematopoietic lineage. To address the in vivo functions of miR-142 we utilized a novel reporter and loss-of-function mouse allele that we have recently generated. Here, we show that miR-142 is broadly expressed in the adult hematopoietic system. Our data further reveal that miR-142 is critical for megakaryopoiesis. Thus, genetic miR-142 ablation caused impaired megakaryocyte maturation, inhibition of polyploidization, abnormal proplatelet formation, and thrombocytopenia. Finally, we characterize a network of miR-142-3p targets which collectively controls actin filament homeostasis, thereby ensuring proper execution of actin-dependent proplatelet formation. Our study reveals a pivotal role for miR-142 activity in megakaryocyte maturation and function, and demonstrates a critical contribution of a single miRNA in orchestrating cytoskeletal dynamics and normal haemostasis.

Article and author information

Author details

  1. Elik Chapnik

    Weizmann Institute of Science, Rehovot, Israel
    Competing interests
    The authors declare that no competing interests exist.
  2. Natalia Rivkin

    Weizmann Institute of Science, Rehovot, Israel
    Competing interests
    The authors declare that no competing interests exist.
  3. Alexander Mildner

    Weizmann Institute of Science, Rehovot, Israel
    Competing interests
    The authors declare that no competing interests exist.
  4. Gilad Beck

    Weizmann Institute of Science, Revhovot, Israel
    Competing interests
    The authors declare that no competing interests exist.
  5. Ronit Pasvolsky

    Weizmann Institute of Science, Rehovot, Israel
    Competing interests
    The authors declare that no competing interests exist.
  6. Eyal Metzl-Raz

    Weizmann Institute of Science, Rehovot, Israel
    Competing interests
    The authors declare that no competing interests exist.
  7. Yehudit Birger

    Tel Aviv University, Tel Aviv, Israel
    Competing interests
    The authors declare that no competing interests exist.
  8. Gail Amir

    Hadassah Medical Center, Jerusalem, Israel
    Competing interests
    The authors declare that no competing interests exist.
  9. Itay Tirosh

    Weizmann Institute of Science, Rehovot, Israel
    Competing interests
    The authors declare that no competing interests exist.
  10. Ziv Porat

    Weizmann Institute of Science, Rehovot, Israel
    Competing interests
    The authors declare that no competing interests exist.
  11. Liron L Israel

    Bar-Ilan University, Ramat-Gan, Israel
    Competing interests
    The authors declare that no competing interests exist.
  12. Emmanuel Lellouche

    Bar-Ilan University, Ramat-Gan, Israel
    Competing interests
    The authors declare that no competing interests exist.
  13. Shulamit Michaeli

    Bar-Ilan University, Ramat-Gan, Israel
    Competing interests
    The authors declare that no competing interests exist.
  14. Jean-paul M Lellouche

    Bar-Ilan University, Ramat-Gan, Israel
    Competing interests
    The authors declare that no competing interests exist.
  15. Shai Izraeli

    Tel Aviv University, Tel Aviv, Israel
    Competing interests
    The authors declare that no competing interests exist.
  16. Steffen Jung

    Weizmann Institute of Science, Rehovot, Israel
    Competing interests
    The authors declare that no competing interests exist.
  17. Eran Hornstein

    Weizmann Institute of Science, Rehovot, Israel
    For correspondence
    eran.hornstein@weizmann.ac.il
    Competing interests
    The authors declare that no competing interests exist.

Ethics

Animal experimentation: This study was performed in strict accordance with the recommendations in the Guide for the Care and Use of Laboratory Animals of the National Institutes of Health. All of the animals were handled according to approved institutional animal care and use committee (IACUC) protocol of the Weizmann Instituter of Science. The protocol, entitled "miR-142 in hematopoietic lineage development" was approved under Permit Numbers: 02930513-3 and 00350111-1. Every effort was made to minimize suffering.

Copyright

© 2014, Chapnik et al.

This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License permitting unrestricted use and redistribution provided that the original author and source are credited.

Metrics

  • 2,561
    views
  • 291
    downloads
  • 68
    citations

Views, downloads and citations are aggregated across all versions of this paper published by eLife.

Download links

A two-part list of links to download the article, or parts of the article, in various formats.

Downloads (link to download the article as PDF)

Open citations (links to open the citations from this article in various online reference manager services)

Cite this article (links to download the citations from this article in formats compatible with various reference manager tools)

  1. Elik Chapnik
  2. Natalia Rivkin
  3. Alexander Mildner
  4. Gilad Beck
  5. Ronit Pasvolsky
  6. Eyal Metzl-Raz
  7. Yehudit Birger
  8. Gail Amir
  9. Itay Tirosh
  10. Ziv Porat
  11. Liron L Israel
  12. Emmanuel Lellouche
  13. Shulamit Michaeli
  14. Jean-paul M Lellouche
  15. Shai Izraeli
  16. Steffen Jung
  17. Eran Hornstein
(2014)
miR-142 orchestrates a network of actin cytoskeleton regulators during megakaryopoiesis
eLife 3:e01964.
https://doi.org/10.7554/eLife.01964

Share this article

https://doi.org/10.7554/eLife.01964

Further reading

    1. Cell Biology
    2. Developmental Biology
    Yi Sun, Zhe Chen ... Chengtian Zhao
    Short Report

    How cells regulate the size of their organelles remains a fundamental question in cell biology. Cilia, with their simple structure and surface localization, provide an ideal model for investigating organelle size control. However, most studies on cilia length regulation are primarily performed on several single-celled organisms. In contrast, the mechanism of length regulation in cilia across diverse cell types within multicellular organisms remains a mystery. Similar to humans, zebrafish contain diverse types of cilia with variable lengths. Taking advantage of the transparency of zebrafish embryos, we conducted a comprehensive investigation into intraflagellar transport (IFT), an essential process for ciliogenesis. By generating a transgenic line carrying Ift88-GFP transgene, we observed IFT in multiple types of cilia with varying lengths. Remarkably, cilia exhibited variable IFT speeds in different cell types, with longer cilia exhibiting faster IFT speeds. This increased IFT speed in longer cilia is likely not due to changes in common factors that regulate IFT, such as motor selection, BBSome proteins, or tubulin modification. Interestingly, longer cilia in the ear cristae tend to form larger IFT compared to shorter spinal cord cilia. Reducing the size of IFT particles by knocking down Ift88 slowed IFT speed and resulted in the formation of shorter cilia. Our study proposes an intriguing model of cilia length regulation via controlling IFT speed through the modulation of the size of the IFT complex. This discovery may provide further insights into our understanding of how organelle size is regulated in higher vertebrates.

    1. Cell Biology
    2. Neuroscience
    Luis Sánchez-Guardado, Peyman Callejas Razavi ... Carlos Lois
    Research Article

    The assembly and maintenance of neural circuits is crucial for proper brain function. Although the assembly of brain circuits has been extensively studied, much less is understood about the mechanisms controlling their maintenance as animals mature. In the olfactory system, the axons of olfactory sensory neurons (OSNs) expressing the same odor receptor converge into discrete synaptic structures of the olfactory bulb (OB) called glomeruli, forming a stereotypic odor map. The OB projection neurons, called mitral and tufted cells (M/Ts), have a single dendrite that branches into a single glomerulus, where they make synapses with OSNs. We used a genetic method to progressively eliminate the vast majority of M/T cells in early postnatal mice, and observed that the assembly of the OB bulb circuits proceeded normally. However, as the animals became adults the apical dendrite of remaining M/Ts grew multiple branches that innervated several glomeruli, and OSNs expressing single odor receptors projected their axons into multiple glomeruli, disrupting the olfactory sensory map. Moreover, ablating the M/Ts in adult animals also resulted in similar structural changes in the projections of remaining M/Ts and axons from OSNs. Interestingly, the ability of these mice to detect odors was relatively preserved despite only having 1–5% of projection neurons transmitting odorant information to the brain, and having highly disrupted circuits in the OB. These results indicate that a reduced number of projection neurons does not affect the normal assembly of the olfactory circuit, but induces structural instability of the olfactory circuitry of adult animals.