| First Author | Le N | Year | 2025 |
| Journal | Elife | Volume | 14 |
| PubMed ID | 40388211 | Mgi Jnum | J:373956 |
| Mgi Id | MGI:8249011 | Doi | 10.7554/eLife.106450 |
| Citation | Le N, et al. (2025) Viral-mediated Pou5f1 (Oct4) overexpression and inhibition of Notch signaling synergistically induce neurogenic competence in mammalian Muller glia. Elife 14 |
| abstractText | Retinal Muller glia in cold-blooded vertebrates can reprogram into neurogenic progenitors to replace neurons lost to injury, but mammals lack this ability. While recent studies have shown that transgenic overexpression of neurogenic bHLH factors and glial-specific disruption of NFI family transcription factors and Notch signaling induce neurogenic competence in mammalian Muller glia, induction of neurogenesis in wildtype glia has thus far proven elusive. Here, we report that viral-mediated overexpression of the pluripotency factor Pou5f1 (Oct4) induces transdifferentiation of mouse Muller glia into bipolar neurons, and synergistically stimulates glial-derived neurogenesis in parallel with Notch loss of function. Single-cell multiomic analysis shows that Pou5f1 overexpression leads to widespread changes in gene expression and chromatin accessibility, inducing activity of both the neurogenic transcription factor Rfx4 and the Yamanaka factors Sox2 and Klf4. This study demonstrates that viral-mediated overexpression of Pou5f1 induces neurogenic competence in adult mouse Muller glia, identifying mechanisms that could be used in cell-based therapies for treating retinal dystrophies. |
