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Updated: Jul 17, 2025
Loss- and Gain-of-function Approach to Investigate Early Cell Fate Determinants in Preimplantation Mouse Embryos
Published on: June 6, 2016
NANOG expression in parthenogenetic porcine blastocysts is required for intact lineage specification and pluripotency
Mingyun Lee1, Jong-Nam Oh2, Gyung Cheol Choe1
1Department of Agricultural Biotechnology, Animal Biotechnology Major, and Research Institute of Agriculture and Life Sciences, Seoul National University, Seoul 08826, Korea.
Objective:
Nanog homeobox (NANOG) is a core transcription factor that contributes to pluripotency along with octamer binding transcription factor-4 (OCT4) and sex determining region-Y box-2 (SOX2). It is an epiblast lineage marker in mammalian pre-implantation embryos and exhibits a species-specific expression pattern. Therefore, it is important to understand the lineage of NANOG, the trophectoderm, and the primitive endoderm in the pig embryo.
Methods:
A loss- and gain-of-function analysis was done to determine the role of NANOG in lineage specification in parthenogenetic porcine blastocysts. We analyzed the relationship between NANOG and pluripotent core transcription factors and other lineage makers.
Results:
In NANOG-null late blastocysts, OCT4-, SOX2-, and SOX17-positive cells were decreased, whereas GATA binding protein 6 (GATA6)-positive cells were increased. Quantitative real-time polymerase chain reaction revealed that the expression of SOX2 was decreased in NANOG-null blastocysts, whereas that of primitive endoderm makers, except SOX17, was increased. In NANOG-overexpressing blastocysts, caudal type homeobox 2 (CDX2-), SOX17-, and GATA6-positive cells were decreased. The results indicated that the expression of primitive endoderm markers and trophectoderm-related genes was decreased.
Conclusion:
Taken together, the results demonstrate that NANOG is involved in the epiblast and primitive endoderm differentiation and is essential for maintaining pluripotency within the epiblast.
