p53 controls genomic stability and temporal differentiation of human neural stem cells and affects neural organization in human brain organoids

In this study, we take advantage of human induced pluripotent stem (iPS) cell-derived neural stem cells and brain organoids to study the role of p53 during human brain development. We knocked down (KD) p53 in human neuroepithelial stem (NES) cells derived from iPS cells. Upon p53KD, NES cells rapidly show centrosome amplification and genomic instability. Furthermore, a reduced proliferation rate, downregulation of genes involved in oxidative phosphorylation (OXPHOS), and an upregulation of glycolytic capacity was apparent upon loss of p53. In addition, p53KD neural stem cells display an increased pace of differentiating into neurons and exhibit a phenotype corresponding to more mature neurons compared to control neurons. Using brain organoids, we modeled more specifically cortical neurogenesis. Here we found that p53 loss resulted in brain organoids with disorganized stem cell layer and reduced cortical progenitor cells and neurons. Similar to NES cells, neural progenitors isolated from brain organoids also show a downregulation in several OXPHOS genes. Taken together, this demonstrates an important role for p53 in controlling genomic stability of neural stem cells and regulation of neuronal differentiation, as well as maintaining structural organization and proper metabolic gene profile of neural progenitors in human brain organoids.