Embryonic stem cell (ESC) chromatin is characterized by a unique set of histone modifications, including enrichment for H3 lysine 9 acetylation (H3K9ac). Recent studies suggest that histone deacetylase (HDAC) inhibitors promote pluripotency. Here, using H3K9ac ChIP followed by high throughput sequencing analyses and gene expression in E14 mouse ESCs before and after treatment with a low level o...

By forcing the expression of certain genes, researchers can prompt non-reproductive cells to transform into early embryonic cells capable of giving rise to various cell types, a phenomenon known as induced pluripotency. Koji Tanabe et al. (pp. 12172–12179) circumvented the inefficiency of this process by revealing how the forced expression of four genes—OCT3/4, SOX2, KLF4, and c-MYC (OSKM)—can ...

Pluripotent embryonic stem cells (ESCs) are known to possess a relatively open chromatin structure; yet, despite efforts to characterize the chromatin signatures of ESCs, the role of chromatin compaction in stem cell fate and function remains elusive. Linker histone H1 is important for higher-order chromatin folding and is essential for mammalian embryogenesis. To investigate the role of H1 and...

Low efficiency of somatic cell reprogramming and heterogeneity among human induced pluripotent stem cells (hiPSCs) demand extensive characterization of isolated clones before their use in downstream applications. By monitoring human fibroblasts undergoing reprogramming for their morphological changes and expression of fibroblast (CD13), pluripotency markers (SSEA-4 and TRA-1-60) and a retrovira...

Pluripotent stem cells are characterised by continuous self-renewal while maintaining the potential to differentiate into cells of all three germ layers. Regulatory networks of maintaining pluripotency have been described in great detail and, similarly, there is great knowledge on key players that regulate their differentiation. Interestingly, pluripotency has various shades with distinct devel...

Naive mouse embryonic stem cells (mESCs) and primed epiblast stem cells (mEpiSCs) represent successive snapshots of pluripotency during embryogenesis. Using transcriptomic and epigenomic mapping we show that a small fraction of transcripts are differentially expressed between mESCs and mEpiSCs and that these genes show expected changes in chromatin at their promoters and enhancers. Unexpectedly...

During the transition from the inner cell mass (ICM) cells of blastocysts to pluripotent embryonic stem cells (ESCs) in vitro, a normal developmental program is replaced in cells that acquire a capacity for infinite self-renewal and pluripotency. We explored the underlying mechanism of this switch by using RNA-Seq transcriptome analysis at the resolution of single cells. We detected significant...

Nanog facilitates embryonic stem cell self-renewal and induced pluripotent stem cell generation during the final stage of reprogramming. From a genome-wide small interfering RNA screen using a Nanog-GFP reporter line, we discovered opposing effects of Snai1 and Snai2 depletion on Nanog promoter activity. We further discovered mutually repressive expression profiles and opposing functions of Sna...

Myc has been characterized as a transcription factor that activates expression of genes involved in pluripotency and cancer, and as a component of the replication complex. Here we find that Myc is present at promoters and enhancers of Drosophila melanogaster genes during interphase. Myc colocalizes with Orc2, which is part of the prereplication complex, during G1. As is the case in mammals, Myc...

Background: The efficiency of in vitro fertilization (IVF) is still low to be developed to blastocyst stage probably because of environmental conditions. It is likely that in vitro environment can not exactly mimic in vivo environment due to differences in media, metabolic content, atmospheric composition, temperature and pH. Therefore it may affect embryo quality by changing in embryo gene exp...