Dax1 (Nr0b1; Dosage-sensitive sex reversal-adrenal hypoplasia congenital on the X-chromosome gene-1) is an important component of the transcription factor network that governs pluripotency in mouse embryonic stem cells (ESCs). Functional evaluation of alternative splice variants of pluripotent transcription factors has shed additional insight on the maintenance of ESC pluripotency and self-renewal. Dax1 splice variants have not been identified and characterized in mouse ESCs. We identified 18 new transcripts of Dax1 with putative protein-coding properties and compared their protein structures with known Dax1 protein (Dax1-472). The expression pattern analysis showed that the novel isoforms were cotranscribed with Dax1-472 in mouse ESCs, but they had transcriptional heterogeneity among single cells and the subcellular localization of the encoded proteins differed. Cell function experiments indicated that Dax1-404 repressed Gata6 transcription and functionally replaced Dax1-472, while Dax1-38 and Dax1-225 partially antagonized Dax1-472 transcriptional repression. This study provided a comprehensive characterization of the Dax1 splice variants in mouse ESCs and suggested complex effects of Dax1 variants in a self-renewal regulatory network.
Keywords: Dax1; alternative splice variant; embryonic stem cell; self-renewal; transcriptional repressor.