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Updated: Feb 15, 2026

Generation and Maintenance of Primate Induced Pluripotent Stem Cells Derived from Urine
Published on: July 28, 2023
Compartmentalization of HP1 Proteins in Pluripotency Acquisition and Maintenance
Nur Zafirah Zaidan1, Kolin J Walker2, Jaime E Brown2
1Epigenetics Theme, Wisconsin Institute for Discovery, University of Wisconsin-Madison, Madison, WI 53715, USA; Genetics Training Program, University of Wisconsin-Madison, Madison, WI 53715, USA.
Abstract:
The heterochromatin protein 1 (HP1) family is involved in various functions with maintenance of chromatin structure. During murine somatic cell reprogramming, we find that early depletion of HP1γ reduces the generation of induced pluripotent stem cells, while late depletion enhances the process, with a concomitant change from a centromeric to nucleoplasmic localization and elongation-associated histone H3.3 enrichment. Depletion of heterochromatin anchoring protein SENP7 increased reprogramming efficiency to a similar extent as HP1γ, indicating the importance of HP1γ release from chromatin for pluripotency acquisition. HP1γ interacted with OCT4 and DPPA4 in HP1α and HP1β knockouts and in H3K9 methylation depleted H3K9M embryonic stem cell (ESC) lines. HP1α and HP1γ complexes in ESCs differed in association with histones, the histone chaperone CAF1 complex, and specific components of chromatin-modifying complexes such as DPY30, implying distinct functional contributions. Taken together, our results reveal the complex contribution of the HP1 proteins to pluripotency.
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