Polypyrimidine Tract Binding Protein blocks microRNA-124 biogenesis to enforce its neuronal specific expression.

MicroRNA-124 is expressed in neurons, where it represses genes inhibitory for neuronal differentiation, including the RNA binding protein PTBP1. PTBP1 maintains non-neuronal splicing patterns of mRNAs that switch to neuronal isoforms upon neuronal differentiation. We find that pri-miR-124-1 is expressed in mouse embryonic stem cells (mESCs) where mature miR-124 is absent. PTBP1 binds to this precursor RNA upstream of the miRNA stem-loop to inhibit mature miR-124 expression in vivo, and DROSHA cleavage of pri-miR-124-1 in vitro. This new function for PTBP1 in repressing miR-124 biogenesis adds an additional regulatory loop to the already intricate interplay between these two molecules. Applying mathematical modeling to examine the dynamics of this regulation, we find that the pool of pri-miR-124 whose maturation is blocked by PTBP1 creates a robust and self-reinforcing transition in gene expression as PTBP1 is depleted during early neuronal differentiation. While interlocking regulatory loops are often modeled between miRNAs and transcriptional regulators, our results indicate that miRNA targeting of posttranscriptional regulators also reinforces developmental decisions. Notably, induction of neuronal differentiation observed upon PTBP1 knockdown likely results from direct de-repression of miR-124, in addition to indirect effects previously described.