All Outputs (3)

Programming of pluripotency and the germline co-evolved from a Nanog ancestor (2025)
Journal Article
Crowley, D., Simpson, L., Chatfield, J., Forey, T., Allegrucci, C., Sang, F., Holmes, N., Genikhovich, G., Technau, U., Cunningham, D., Silva, E., Mullin, N., Dixon, J. E., Loose, M., Alberio, R., & Johnson, A. D. (2025). Programming of pluripotency and the germline co-evolved from a Nanog ancestor. Cell Reports, 44(3), Article 115396. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.celrep.2025.115396

Francois Jacob proposed that evolutionary novelty arises through incremental tinkering with pre-existing genetic mechanisms. Vertebrate evolution was predicated on pluripotency—the ability of embryonic cells to form somatic germ-layers and primordial... Read More about Programming of pluripotency and the germline co-evolved from a Nanog ancestor.

NANOG is required to establish the competence for germ-layer differentiation in the basal tetrapod axolotl (2023)
Journal Article
Simpson, L. A., Crowley, D., Forey, T., Acosta, H., Ferjentsik, Z., Chatfield, J., Payne, A., Simpson, B. S., Redwood, C., Dixon, J. E., Holmes, N., Sang, F., Alberio, R., Loose, M., & Johnson, A. D. (2023). NANOG is required to establish the competence for germ-layer differentiation in the basal tetrapod axolotl. PLoS Biology, 21(6), Article e3002121. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pbio.3002121

Pluripotency defines the unlimited potential of individual cells of vertebrate embryos, from which all adult somatic cells and germ cells are derived. Understanding how the programming of pluripotency evolved has been obscured in part by a lack of da... Read More about NANOG is required to establish the competence for germ-layer differentiation in the basal tetrapod axolotl.

Stochastic specification of primordial germ cells from mesoderm precursors in axolotl embryos (2014)
Journal Article
Chatfield, J., O'Reilly, M.-A., Bachvarova, R. F., Ferjentsik, Z., Redwood, C., Walmsley, M., Patient, R., Loose, M., & JOhnson, A. D. (2014). Stochastic specification of primordial germ cells from mesoderm precursors in axolotl embryos. Development, 141(12), 2429-2440. https://doi.org/10.1242/dev.105346

A common feature of development in most vertebrate models is the early segregation of the germ line from the soma. For example, in Xenopus and zebrafish embryos primordial germ cells (PGCs) are specified by germ plasm that is inherited from the egg;... Read More about Stochastic specification of primordial germ cells from mesoderm precursors in axolotl embryos.