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Stem cells

Multiple routes to pluripotency

Nature Reviews Genetics volume 16, page 67 (2015)Cite this article

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induced pluripotent stem (iPS) cells exist in multiple unique cell states

In two studies published in Nature (Hussein et al. and Tonge et al.), Nagy and colleagues used a secondary reprogramming system, in which the starting differentiated cells are mouse iPS cell-derived fibroblasts containing doxycycline-inducible OSKM. This system produces enough reprogrammed cells to enable detailed molecular analyses to be carried out. Previous secondary reprogramming studies provided evidence that reprogramming occurs in multiple steps via transitions through defined transcriptional and chromatin states. To characterize these steps, the authors generated multiple omic profiles at specific time points. Such profiles included the transcriptome (for both long and short transcripts), the global and cell-surface proteome, and the epigenome. The latter tracked different chromatin marks, specifically activating histone H3 lysine 4 trimethylation (H3K4me3), repressive H3K27me3 and H3K36me3, which is indicative of transcriptional elongation.

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References

  1. Hussein, S. M. I. et al. Genome-wide characterization of the routes to pluripotency. Nature 516, 198–206 (2014)

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  1. Senior Editor, Nature Reviews Molecular Cell Biology,

    Kim Baumann

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  1. Kim Baumann
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Baumann, K. Multiple routes to pluripotency. Nat Rev Genet 16, 67 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1038/nrg3892

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