The long-noncoding RNA MALAT1 regulates TGF-β/Smad signaling through formation of a lncRNA-protein complex with Smads, SETD2 and PPM1A in hepatic cells

PLoS One. 2020 Jan 29;15(1):e0228160. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0228160. eCollection 2020.

Abstract

Recent studies have demonstrated the implication of long noncoding RNAs (lncRNAs) in a variety of physiological and pathological processes. However, the majority of lncRNAs are functionally unknown. The current study describes that the lncRNA MALAT1 regulates TGF-β/Smad signaling pathway through formation of a lncRNA-protein complex containing Smads, SETD2 and PPM1A. Our data show that this lncRNA-proteins complex facilitates the dephosphorylation of pSmad2/3 by providing the interaction niche for pSmad2/3 and their specific phosphatase PPM1A, thus terminating TGF-β/Smad signaling in hepatic cells. Based on these mechanistic studies, we performed further experiments to determine whether depletion of MALAT1 would augment cellular TGF-β/Smad signaling. We observed that MALAT1 depletion enhanced TGF-β/Smad signaling response, as reflect by amplification of Smad-mediated differentiation of induced pluripotent stem (iPS) cells to hepatocytes. Our experimental results demonstrate an important role of MALAT1 for regulation of TGF-β/Smad signaling in hepatic cells. Given the diverse functions of TGF-β/Smad pathway in various physiological and pathogenic processes, our results described in the current study will have broad implications for further understanding the role of MALAT1 in TGF-β/Smad pathway in human biology and disease.

Publication types

  • Research Support, N.I.H., Extramural
  • Research Support, U.S. Gov't, Non-P.H.S.

MeSH terms

  • Cell Differentiation
  • Cells, Cultured
  • Hepatocytes / metabolism*
  • Histone-Lysine N-Methyltransferase / metabolism*
  • Humans
  • Immunoprecipitation
  • Induced Pluripotent Stem Cells / metabolism
  • Protein Phosphatase 2C / metabolism*
  • RNA, Long Noncoding / metabolism*
  • Signal Transduction
  • Smad Proteins / metabolism*
  • Smad2 Protein / metabolism
  • Smad3 Protein / metabolism
  • Transforming Growth Factor beta / metabolism*

Substances

  • MALAT1 long non-coding RNA, human
  • RNA, Long Noncoding
  • SMAD2 protein, human
  • SMAD3 protein, human
  • Smad Proteins
  • Smad2 Protein
  • Smad3 Protein
  • Transforming Growth Factor beta
  • Histone-Lysine N-Methyltransferase
  • SETD2 protein, human
  • PPM1A protein, human
  • Protein Phosphatase 2C