New Publication - Esrrb guides naive pluripotent cells through the formative transcriptional programme

Pubblicato il: 02.05.2023 08:28

Esrrb guides naive pluripotent cells through the formative transcriptional programme

During embryonic development, naive pluripotent epiblast cells transit to a formative state characterised by distinct transcriptional and epigenetic profiles and acquisition of competence to differentiate into all somatic and germline lineages. However, the molecular mechanisms controlling such transition are still poorly understood.

In this paper “Esrrb guides naive pluripotent cells through the formative transcriptional programme” published in Nature Cell Biology (https://www.nature.com/articles/s41556-023-01131-x) the authors show that the pluripotency factor ESRRB is both required and sufficient to activate formative genes, and its depletion results in faulty activation of mesendoderm and extraembryonic markers and impairment in the ability to generate primordial germ cells. Genomic analyses and computational modelling showed that ESRRB occupies key formative genes in naive cells and throughout the formative state revealing that ESRRB kickstarts and leads the formative transition.

The research has been spearheaded by Elena Carbognin, Graziano Martello and collaborators at TIGEM and EMBL Rome.