Yamanaka factors critically regulate the developmental signaling network in mouse embryonic stem cells

• 来源期刊: 细胞研究（英文版）
• 年，卷（期）: 2008,（12）
• 页码范围: 1177-1189
• 页数: 13页
• 语种: 英文
• DOI: 10.1038/cr.2008.309

摘要

Yamanaka factors (Oct3/4,Sox2,KIf4,c-Myc) are highly expressed in embryonic stem (ES) cells,and their overexpression can induce pluripotency in both mouse and human somatic cells,indicating that these factors regulate the developmental signaling network necessary for ES cell pluripotency.However,systemic analysis of the signaling pathways regulated by Yamanaka factors has not yet been fully described.In this study,we identified the target promoters of endogenous Yamanaka factors on a whole genome scale using ChIP (chromatin immunoprecipitation)-on-chip in E14.1 mouse ES cells,and we found that these four factors co-occupied 58 promoters.Interestingly,when Oct4 and Sox2 were analyzed as core factors,Kif4 functioned to enhance the core factors for development regulation,whereas c-Myc seemed to play a distinct role in regulating metabolism.The pathway analysis revealed that Yamanaka factors collectively regulate a developmental signaling network composed of 16 developmental signaling pathways,nine of which represent earlier unknown pathways in ES cells,including apoptosis and cellcycle pathways.We further analyzed data from a recent study examining Yamanaka factors in mouse ES cells.Interestingly,this analysis also revealed 16 developmental signaling pathways,of which 14 pathways overlap with the ones revealed by this study,despite that the target genes and the signaling pathways regulated by each individual Yamanaka factor differ significantly between these two datasets.We suggest that Yamanaka factors critically regulate a developmental signaling network composed of approximately a dozen crucial developmental signaling pathways to maintain the pluripotency of ES cells and probably also to induce pluripotent stem cells.