A Novel insight into human stem cell metabolism: DGUOK silencing via CRISPR interference

Deoxyguanosine kinase (DGUOK) plays a key role in deoxynucleotide metabolism and mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) maintenance, yet its function in primed human pluripotent stem cells (hPSCs) remains poorly understood. Here, we investigated the role of DGUOK in primed hPSCs cultured under normoxic conditions. RNA- seq and qRT-PCR analyses confirmed that DGUOK expression remained high in the primed state, and cells retained their pluripotent status under normoxic conditions. We explored the DGUOK function with a previously developed inducible CRISPRi system. Additionally, we assessed the impact of DGUOK silencing on cell proliferation.