Axolotl Nanog activity in mouse embryonic stem cells demonstrates that ground state pluripotency is conserved from urodele amphibians to mammals

James E. Dixon, Cinzia Allegrucci, Catherine Redwood, Kevin Kump, Yuhong Bian, Jodie Chatfield, Yi Hsien Chen, Virginie Sottile, S. Randal Voss, Ramiro Alberio, Andrew D. Johnson

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

50 Scopus citations

Abstract

Cells in the pluripotent ground state can give rise to somatic cells and germ cells, and the acquisition of pluripotency is dependent on the expression of Nanog. Pluripotency is conserved in the primitive ectoderm of embryos from mammals and urodele amphibians, and here we report the isolation of a Nanog ortholog from axolotls (axNanog). axNanog does not contain a tryptophan repeat domain and is expressed as a monomer in the axolotl animal cap. The monomeric form is sufficient to regulate pluripotency in mouse embryonic stem cells, but axNanog dimers are required to rescue LIF-independent self-renewal. Our results show that protein interactions mediated by Nanog dimerization promote proliferation. More importantly, they demonstrate that the mechanisms governing pluripotency are conserved from urodele amphibians to mammals.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)2973-2980
Number of pages8
JournalDevelopment (Cambridge)
Volume137
Issue number18
DOIs
StatePublished - Sep 15 2010

Funding

FundersFunder number
National Institutes of Health (NIH)
National Center for Research ResourcesR24RR016344
Medical Research CouncilG0700078, G0900147

    Keywords

    • Axolotl
    • Nanog
    • Pluripotency
    • Xenopus

    ASJC Scopus subject areas

    • Molecular Biology
    • Developmental Biology

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