Nucleostemin delays cellular senescence and negatively regulates TRF1 protein stability

Nucleostemin (NS) encodes a nucleolar GTP-binding protein highly enriched in the stem cells and cancer cells. To determine its biological activity in vivo, we generated NS loss- and gain-of-function mouse models. The embryogenesis of homozygous NS-null (NS^−/−) mice was aborted before the blastula stage. Although the growth and fertility of heterozygous NS-null (NS^+/−) mice appeared normal, NS^+/− mouse embryonic fibroblasts (MEFs) had fewer NS proteins, a lower population growth rate, and higher percentages of senescent cells from passage 5 (P5) to P7 than their wild-type littermates. Conversely, transgenic overexpression of NS could rescue the NS^−/− embryo in a dose-dependent manner, increase the population growth rate, and reduce the senescent percentage of MEFs. Cell cycle analyses revealed increased pre-G₁ percentages in the late-passage NS^+/− MEF cultures compared to the wild-type cultures. We demonstrated that NS could interact with telomeric repeat-binding factor 1 (TRF1) and enhance the degradation but not the ubiquitination of the TRF1 protein, which negatively regulates telomere length and is essential for early embryogenesis. This work demonstrates the roles of NS in establishing early embryogenesis and delaying cellular senescence of MEFs and reveals a mechanism of a NS-regulated degradation of TRF1.