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Genetic variation reveals a homeotic long noncoding RNA that modulates human hematopoietic stem cells

Lyu, P.; Agarwal, G.; Guo, C.-J.; Ye, T.; Weng, C.; Antoszewski, M.; Joubran, S.; Caulier, A.; Poeschla, M.; Sankaran, V. G.

2025-07-16 genetics
10.1101/2025.07.16.664824 bioRxiv
Show abstract

The HOXA gene locus coordinates body patterning, hematopoiesis, and differentiation. While studying blood phenotype-associated variation within the HOXA locus, we identified a genetic variant, rs17437411, associated with globally reduced blood counts, protection from blood cancers, and variation in anthropometric phenotypes. We find that this variant disrupts the activity of a previously unstudied antisense long non-coding RNA (lncRNA) located between HOXA7 and HOXA9, which we have named HOTSCRAMBL. The HOTSCRAMBL variant disrupts lncRNA function and reduces human hematopoietic stem cell (HSC) self-renewal. Mechanistically, HOTSCRAMBL enables appropriate expression and splicing of HOXA genes in HSCs, most notably HOXA9, in an SRSF2-dependent manner. Given the critical role of HOXA gene expression in some blood cancers, we also demonstrate that HOTSCRAMBL variation or deletion compromises HOXA-dependent acute myeloid leukemias. Collectively, we show how insights from human genetic variation can uncover critical regulatory processes required for effective developmental gene expression.

Published in Cell (predicted rank #4) · training set

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