Asynchronous mouse embryo polarization leads to heterogeneity in cell fate specification.

ABSTRACT: The first lineage allocation in mouse and human embryos separates the inner cell mass (ICM) from the outer trophectoderm (TE). This symmetry-breaking event is executed through polarization of cells at the 8 cell stage and subsequent asymmetric divisions, generating polar (TE) and apolar (ICM) cells. Here, we show that mouse embryo polarization is unexpectedly asynchronous. Cells polarizing at the early and late 8 cell stage have distinct molecular and morphological properties that direct their following lineage specification, with early polarizing cells being biased towards producing the TE lineage. More recent studies have also implicated heterogeneities between cells prior to the 8 cell stage in the first lineage allocation: cells exhibiting reduced methyltransferase CARM1 activity at th

SUBMITTER: Lamba A 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC12685296 | biostudies-literature | 2025 Dec

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature