TABLE 1.

List of DNA and RNA sensors mentioned in this review, the relative downstream effect and examples of stem cell types shown to express these sensors.

Sensor	Ligand	Source	Downstream effect	Stem cell type	References
cGAS	dsDNA	Virus infection; cytosolic self-DNA; micronuclei	STING activation; NF-kB activation; IFN1 expression	MSCs; HSCs; stem cell-like CD8+ T cells; embryonic stem cells	Yang et al., 2015; Li et al., 2020; Sharma et al., 2020; Zheng et al., 2020
IFI16	dsDNA or ssDNA	Virus infection; cytosolic self-DNA; micronuclei	Modulation of STING activity; NF-kB activation; IFN1 expression	Hair follicle stem cells; HSCs	Piccaluga et al., 2015; Orvain et al., 2020
ZBP1 (DAI)	Z-dsDNA or RNA	Virus infection; cytosolic self-DNA; endogenous RNA	IFN1 expression; cell death; NLRP3 activation	MSCs; intestinal stem cells	Wang et al., 2020; Zhao et al., 2020
AIM2	dsDNA	Virus infection; cytosolic self-DNA	AIM2 inflammasome complex assembly; IL-18 and IL-1β activation; cell death	Intestinal stem cells; epithelial stem cells; MSCs	Man et al., 2015; Yang et al., 2015; Naik et al., 2017
NLRP3	dsDNA	Virus infection; cytosolic self-DNA	NLRP3 inflammasome complex assembly; IL-18 and IL-1β activation; cell death	HSCs; MSCs; CSCs	Huang et al., 2017; Adamiak et al., 2020; Ahn et al., 2020
RLRs	dsRNA	Virus infection; endogenous dsRNA; ERV expression	IFN1 and ISGs expression	NSCs; MSCs; HSCs	Yang et al., 2013; Lin et al., 2019; Clapes et al., 2021
Dicer	dsRNA or ncRNA	Virus infection; endogenous dsRNA; ERV expression; miRNA	dsRNA cleavage and IFN1 repression	Embryonic stem cells; NSCs; CSCs; hair follicle stem cells; intestinal stem cells	Kawase-Koga et al., 2010; Iliou et al., 2014; Park et al., 2017; Vishlaghi and Lisse, 2020; Gurung et al., 2021