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Updated: Jun 13, 2025

Hemogenic Reprogramming of Human Fibroblasts by Enforced Expression of Transcription Factors
Published on: November 4, 2019
Hypertranscription: the invisible hand in stem cell biology
Yun-Kyo Kim1, Evelyne Collignon2, S Bryn Martin3
1Program in Developmental and Stem Cell Biology, Hospital for Sick Children, Toronto, ON M5G 0A4, Canada; Department of Molecular Genetics, University of Toronto, Toronto, ON M5G 1X5, Canada.
None:
Stem cells are the fundamental drivers of growth during development and adult organ homeostasis. The properties that define stem cells - self-renewal and differentiation - are highly biosynthetically demanding. In order to fuel this demand, stem and progenitor cells engage in hypertranscription, a global amplification of the transcriptome. While standard normalization methods in transcriptomics typically mask hypertranscription, new approaches are beginning to reveal a remarkable range in global transcriptional output in stem and progenitor cells. We discuss technological advancements to probe global transcriptional shifts, review recent findings that contribute to defining hallmarks of stem cell hypertranscription, and propose future directions in this field.
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Transcription
Transcription is the process of synthesizing RNA from a DNA sequence by RNA polymerase. It is the first step in producing a protein from a gene sequence. Additionally, many other proteins and regulatory sequences are involved in the proper synthesis of messenger RNA (mRNA). Regulation of transcription is responsible for the differentiation of all the different types of cells and often for the proper cellular response to environmental signals.
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