Stem cells, both adult and germline, are the key cells underpinning animal evolution. Yet, surprisingly little is known about the evolution of their shared key feature: pluripotency. Now using genome-wide expression profiling of pluripotent planarian adult stem cells (pASCs), Önal et al (2012) present evidence for deep molecular conservation of pluripotency. They characterise the expression pro...

Long non-coding RNAs (lncRNAs) are a numerous class of newly discovered genes in the human genome, which have been proposed to be key regulators of biological processes, including stem cell pluripotency and neurogenesis. However, at present very little functional characterization of lncRNAs in human differentiation has been carried out. In the present study, we address this using human embryoni...

Pluripotency can be defined as the ability of individual cells to initiate all of the lineages of the mature organism in response to signals from the environment. It has long been assumed that during development, pluripotency is progressively and irreversibly lost through a mechanism that requires strict coordination of the signalling pathways involved in cell proliferation, differentiation and...

Somatic cells can be reprogrammed to induced pluripotent stem cells by over-expression of OCT4, SOX2, KLF4 and c-MYC (OSKM). With the aim of unveiling the early mechanisms underlying the induction of pluripotency, we have analyzed transcriptional profiles at 24, 48 and 72 hours post-transduction of OSKM into human foreskin fibroblasts. Experiments confirmed that upon viral transduction, the imm...

The ability of mouse embryonic stem cells (mESCs) to self-renew or differentiate into various cell lineages is regulated by signaling pathways and a core pluripotency transcriptional network (PTN) comprising Nanog, Oct4, and Sox2. The Wnt/β-catenin pathway promotes pluripotency by alleviating T cell factor TCF3-mediated repression of the PTN. However, it has remained unclear how β-catenin's fun...

Introduction. Xeroderma pigmentosum group C (XPC), essential component of multisubunit stem cell coactivator complex (SCC), functions as the critical factor modulating pluripotency and genome integrity through interaction with Oct-4/Sox2. However, its specific role in regulating pluripotency and multilineage differentiation of human dental pulp cells (DPCs) remains unknown. Methods. To elucidat...

Not much is known about the molecular and functional features of pluripotent stem cells (PSCs) in rabbits. To address this, we derived and characterized 2 types of rabbit PSCs from the same breed of New Zealand White rabbits: 4 lines of embryonic stem cells (rbESCs), and 3 lines of induced PSCs (rbiPSCs) that were obtained by reprogramming adult skin fibroblasts. All cell lines required fibrobl...

The germ line is unique in that highly specialised cells must be formed while retaining genomic totipotency. In mice, germ cells are derived from the pluripotent epiblast cells under the influence of inductive signals. This specification event involves reactivation or maintenance of core regulators of pluripotency, activation of germ line specific genetic programs, silencing of somatic cell pro...