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Formative pluripotency: the executive phase in a developmental continuum.

Published version
Peer-reviewed

Type

Article

Change log

Authors

Abstract

The regulative capability of single cells to give rise to all primary embryonic lineages is termed pluripotency. Observations of fluctuating gene expression and phenotypic heterogeneity in vitro have fostered a conception of pluripotency as an intrinsically metastable and precarious state. However, in the embryo and in defined culture environments the properties of pluripotent cells change in an orderly sequence. Two phases of pluripotency, called naïve and primed, have previously been described. In this Hypothesis article, a third phase, called formative pluripotency, is proposed to exist as part of a developmental continuum between the naïve and primed phases. The formative phase is hypothesised to be enabling for the execution of pluripotency, entailing remodelling of transcriptional, epigenetic, signalling and metabolic networks to constitute multi-lineage competence and responsiveness to specification cues.

Description

Keywords

embryonic stem cells, pluripotency, epiblast, lineage specification, developmental potential

Journal Title

Development

Conference Name

Journal ISSN

0950-1991
1477-9129

Volume Title

144

Publisher

The Company of Biologists
Sponsorship
Medical Research Council (MC_PC_12009)
MRC (G1100526)
Research that has contributed to this Hypothesis was funded by the Medical Research Council, the Wellcome Trust, the Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council and the European Commission Project PluriMes. A.S. is a Medical Research Council Professor.