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Table 1 Summary of HERV-H findings to date in human stem cells

From: Transposable elements in the mammalian embryo: pioneers surviving through stealth and service

Findings

Reference(s)

Binding of pluripotency TFs in ESCs and iPSCs within or near LTRs or specific LTR-driven lncRNAs

[24, 28, 42–45, 47]

Induction of HERV-H, or LTR7-driven lncRNA/chimeric RNA expression, in ESCs, declining upon differentiation

[26–28, 43–45, 47, 60, 161]

Active chromatin marks on specific LTRs in ESCs or iPSCs

[28, 32, 43, 44, 47, 162]

DNA hypomethylation at specific LTRs in ESCs

[28, 161]

LTR enhancer activity in ESCs

[27]

Changes in HERV-H associated with expression changes of genes near LTRs

[27, 28, 32, 42]

Induction of HERV-H in iPSCs, declining upon differentiation

[24, 27, 28, 32, 46]

Differentiation-defective iPSC clones retain high levels of HERV-H RNA

[46]

Knockdown of general HERV-H expression inhibits iPSC formation and causes ESC differentiation

[24, 27, 28]

Knockdown of specific LTR-driven RNAs inhibits iPSC formation or causes ESC differentiation

[24, 28, 44, 45]

LTR-driven lncRNA acts as miRNA sponge to positively regulate pluripotency TFs

[45]

HERV-H RNA associates with coactivators and LTR loci in ESCs

[27]

HERV-H expression marks for naïve-like stem cells

[28]

HERV-H LTR subtypes expressed sequentially in early development

[25, 31]

  1. ESC embryonic stem cell, HERV human endogenous retrovirus, iPSC induced pluripotent stem cell, lncRNA long noncoding RNA, LTR long terminal repeat, miRNA microRNA, TF transcription factor