Self-renewal is the process by which stem cells divide to make more stem cells, perpetuating the stem cell pool throughout life. Self-renewal is division with maintenance of the undifferentiated state. This requires cell cycle control and often maintenance of multipotency or pluripotency, depending on the stem cell. Self-renewal programs involve networks that balance proto-oncogenes (promoting ...

Stem cells are responsible for tissue turnover throughout lifespan. Only highly controlled specific environment, “the stem cell niche”, can sustain undifferentiated stem cell-pool. The balance between maintenance and differentiation is crucial for individual’s health: uncontrolled stem cell self-renewal or proliferation can lead to hyperplasia and mutations that further provoke malignant transf...

Essential to the function of shoot meristems in plants to act as sites of continuous organ and tissue formation is the ability of cells within the meristem to remain undifferentiated and proliferate indefinitely. These are characteristics of the stem cells within meristems that are critical for their growth properties. Stem cells are found in tight association with the stem cell niche-those cel...

Floral meristems and shoot apical meristems (SAMs) are homologous, self-maintaining stem cell systems. Unlike SAMs, floral meristems are determinate, and stem cell maintenance is abolished once all floral organs are initiated. To investigate the underlying regulatory mechanisms, we analyzed the interactions between WUSCHEL (WUS), which specifies stem cell identity, and AGAMOUS (AG), which is re...

the transcriptional factor sox2 regulates the expression of some of the developmental genes, which are essential for the maintenance of pluripotency of stem cells. sox2 also expresses in the female gamete during folliculogenesis, but its role remains ambiguous. the aim of this study was to investigate the expression of sox2 in the mice ovarian tissue during different stage of estrous cycle. adu...