TY - JOUR TI - PRMT5 regulates ovarian follicle development by facilitating Wt1 translation AU - Chen, Min AU - Dong, Fangfang AU - Chen, Min AU - Shen, Zhiming AU - Wu, Haowei AU - Cen, Changhuo AU - Cui, Xiuhong AU - Bao, Shilai AU - Gao, Fei A2 - Kumar, T Rajendra A2 - Bronner, Marianne E A2 - Freiman RN, Richard VL - 10 PY - 2021 DA - 2021/08/27 SP - e68930 C1 - eLife 2021;10:e68930 DO - 10.7554/eLife.68930 UR - https://doi.org/10.7554/eLife.68930 AB - Protein arginine methyltransferase 5 (Prmt5) is the major type II enzyme responsible for symmetric dimethylation of arginine. Here, we found that PRMT5 was expressed at high level in ovarian granulosa cells of growing follicles. Inactivation of Prmt5 in granulosa cells resulted in aberrant follicle development and female infertility. In Prmt5-knockout mice, follicle development was arrested with disorganized granulosa cells in which WT1 expression was dramatically reduced and the expression of steroidogenesis-related genes was significantly increased. The premature differentiated granulosa cells were detached from oocytes and follicle structure was disrupted. Mechanism studies revealed that Wt1 expression was regulated by PRMT5 at the protein level. PRMT5 facilitated IRES-dependent translation of Wt1 mRNA by methylating HnRNPA1. Moreover, the upregulation of steroidogenic genes in Prmt5-deficient granulosa cells was repressed by Wt1 overexpression. These results demonstrate that PRMT5 participates in granulosa cell lineage maintenance by inducing Wt1 expression. Our study uncovers a new role of post-translational arginine methylation in granulosa cell differentiation and follicle development. KW - PRMT5 KW - ovary KW - granulosa cells KW - Wt1 KW - IRES JF - eLife SN - 2050-084X PB - eLife Sciences Publications, Ltd ER -