A transposon sensor during epigenetic reprogramming consists of pervasive transcription and endosiRNAs in mouse ES cells [RNA-Seq]

DNA methylation and other repressive epigenetic marks are erased genome-wide in mammalian primordial germ cells (PGCs), the early embryo and in naïve embryonic stem cells (ESCs). This is a critical phase for transposon element (TE) defense since presumably alternative pathways need to be employed to limit their activity. It has been reported that pervasive transcription is enriched for TEs in ESCs in comparison to somatic cells. Here we test the hypothesis that pervasive transcription overlapping TEs forms a sensor for loss of their transcriptional repression. Overlapping sense and antisense transcription is found in TEs, and the increase of sense transcription induced by acute deletion of DNMT1 leads to the emergence of small RNAs. These small RNAs are loaded into ARGONAUTE 2 suggesting an endosiRNA mechanism for transposon silencing. Indeed, deletion of DICER reveals this mechanism to be important for silencing of certain transposon classes, while others are additionally repressed by deposition of repressive histone marks. Our observations suggest that pervasive transcription overlapping with TEs resulting in endosiRNAs is a transposon sensor that restrains their activity during epigenetic reprogramming in the germline. Overall design: Total RNA-seq libraires (2 biological replicates of 16 samples, 1 biological replicate of 1 sample)

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Berrens RV, Andrews S, Spensberger D, Santos F, Dean W, Gould P, Sharif J, Olova N, Chandra T, Koseki H, von Meyenn F, Reik W