Evaluation of miR-302 promoter activity in transgenic mice and pluripotent stem cell lines

Some miRNAs, including the miR-302 cluster, are critical regulators of the stemness state of embryonic stem cells and cell fate patterning. In this study, we evaluated the activity of the miR-302 core promotor in mice and human pluripotent stem cells, somatic tissue derivatives, and generated transgenic mice expressing EGFP under a miR-302 promoter. The expression of EGFP under the control of the miR-302 promotor was examined in the cell lines and somatic tissues of transgenic mice, transgenic blastocysts, and embryonic stem cells derived from transgenic blastocysts. Our results showed that the miR-302 promoter is highly expressed in the mouse and human pluripotent cells, weakly expressed in the somatic tissue derivatives, is highly expressed in both blastocysts and the first passages of transgenic embryonic stem cells, and lowly expressed in the somatic tissues of transgenic mice. It can be concluded that different temporal and spatial gene expression patterns occur during the embryonic and adult stages of cells in mice.