The SMAD2/3 interactome reveals that TGFβ controls m6A mRNA methylation in pluripotency Alessandro Bertero Stephanie Brown Pedro Madrigal Anna Osnato Daniel Ortmann Loukia Yiangou Juned Kadiwala Nina C Hubner Igor Ruiz De Los Mozos Christoph Sadee An-Sofie Lenaerts Shota Nakanoh Rodrigo Grandy Edward Farnell Jernej Ule Hendrik G Stunnenberg Sasha Mendjan Ludovic Vallier 10779/crick.12593522.v1 https://crick.figshare.com/articles/journal_contribution/The_SMAD2_3_interactome_reveals_that_TGF_controls_m6A_mRNA_methylation_in_pluripotency/12593522 The TGFβ pathway has essential roles in embryonic development, organ homeostasis, tissue repair and disease. These diverse effects are mediated through the intracellular effectors SMAD2 and SMAD3 (hereafter SMAD2/3), whose canonical function is to control the activity of target genes by interacting with transcriptional regulators. Therefore, a complete description of the factors that interact with SMAD2/3 in a given cell type would have broad implications for many areas of cell biology. Here we describe the interactome of SMAD2/3 in human pluripotent stem cells. This analysis reveals that SMAD2/3 is involved in multiple molecular processes in addition to its role in transcription. In particular, we identify a functional interaction with the METTL3-METTL14-WTAP complex, which mediates the conversion of adenosine to N6-methyladenosine (m6A) on RNA. We show that SMAD2/3 promotes binding of the m6A methyltransferase complex to a subset of transcripts involved in early cell fate decisions. This mechanism destabilizes specific SMAD2/3 transcriptional targets, including the pluripotency factor gene NANOG, priming them for rapid downregulation upon differentiation to enable timely exit from pluripotency. Collectively, these findings reveal the mechanism by which extracellular signalling can induce rapid cellular responses through regulation of the epitranscriptome. These aspects of TGFβ signalling could have far-reaching implications in many other cell types and in diseases such as cancer. 2020-07-01 11:22:24 Activins Adenosine Animals Cell Differentiation Epigenesis, Genetic Humans Methylation Methyltransferases Multiprotein Complexes Nanog Homeobox Protein Nodal Protein Nuclear Proteins Pluripotent Stem Cells Protein Binding RNA, Messenger Signal Transduction Smad2 Protein Smad3 Protein Transcriptome Transforming Growth Factor beta Ule - sec General Science & Technology