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Principles of early human development and germ cell program from conserved model systems

Kobayashi, Toshihiro; Zhang, Haixin; Tang, walfred; Irie, Naoko; Withey, Sarah; Klisch, Doris; Sybirna, Anastasiya; Contreras, D.; Webb, Robert; Allegrucci, Cinzia; Alberio, Ramiro; Surani, M.

Authors

Toshihiro Kobayashi

Haixin Zhang

walfred Tang

Naoko Irie

Sarah Withey

Doris Klisch

Anastasiya Sybirna

D. Contreras

Robert Webb

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RAMIRO ALBERIO ramiro.alberio@nottingham.ac.uk
Professor of Developmental Biology

M. Surani



Abstract

Human primordial germ cells (hPGCs), the precursors of sperm and eggs, originate during week 2-3 of early postimplantation development(1). Using in vitro models of hPGC induction(2-4), recent studies suggest striking mechanistic differences in specification of human and mouse PGCs(5). This may partly be due to the divergence in their pluripotency networks, and early postimplantation development(6-8). Since early human embryos are inaccessible for direct studies, we considered alternatives, including porcine embryos that, as in humans, develop as bilaminar embryonic discs. Here we show that porcine PGCs (pPGCs) originate from the posterior pre-primitive streak competent epiblast by sequential upregulation of SOX17 and BLIMP1 in response to WNT and BMP signalling. Together with human and monkey in vitro models simulating peri-gastrulation development, we show conserved principles for epiblast development for competency for PGC fate, followed by initiation of the epigenetic program(9-11), regulated by a balanced SOX17–BLIMP1 gene dosage. Our combinatorial approach using human, porcine and monkey in vivo and in vitro models, provides synthetic insights on early human development.

Citation

Kobayashi, T., Zhang, H., Tang, W., Irie, N., Withey, S., Klisch, D., …Surani, M. (2017). Principles of early human development and germ cell program from conserved model systems. Nature, 546, https://doi.org/10.1038/nature22812

Journal Article Type Article
Acceptance Date May 3, 2017
Publication Date Jun 7, 2017
Deposit Date Jun 21, 2017
Publicly Available Date Mar 28, 2024
Journal Nature
Print ISSN 0028-0836
Electronic ISSN 1476-4687
Publisher Nature Publishing Group
Peer Reviewed Peer Reviewed
Volume 546
DOI https://doi.org/10.1038/nature22812
Public URL https://nottingham-repository.worktribe.com/output/864608
Publisher URL https://www.nature.com/nature/journal/v546/n7658/full/nature22812.html

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