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Updated: Sep 6, 2025

A Bioinformatics Pipeline for Investigating Molecular Evolution and Gene Expression using RNA-seq
Published on: May 28, 2021
The functional diversity of the POUV-class proteins across vertebrates
Evgeny I Bakhmet1, Alexey N Tomilin1
1Laboratory of the Molecular Biology of Stem Cells, Institute of Cytology, Russian Academy of Sciences, St Petersburg, Russia.
Abstract:
POUV is a relatively newly emerged class of POU transcription factors present in jawed vertebrates (Gnathostomata). The function of POUV-class proteins is inextricably linked to zygotic genome activation (ZGA). A large body of evidence now extends the role of these proteins to subsequent developmental stages. While some functions resemble those of other POU-class proteins and are related to neuroectoderm development, others have emerged de novo. The most notable of the latter functions is pluripotency control by Oct4 in mammals. In this review, we focus on these de novo functions in the best-studied species harbouring POUV proteins-zebrafish, Xenopus (anamniotes) and mammals (amniotes). Despite the broad diversity of their biological functions in vertebrates, POUV proteins exert a common feature related to their role in safeguarding the undifferentiated state of cells. Here we summarize numerous pieces of evidence for these specific functions of the POUV-class proteins and recap available loss-of-function data.
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