Genome-wide analysis reveals Sall4 to be a major regulator of pluripotency in murine-embryonic stem cells.

ABSTRACT: Embryonic stem cells have potential utility in regenerative medicine because of their pluripotent characteristics. Sall4, a zinc-finger transcription factor, is expressed very early in embryonic development with Oct4 and Nanog, two well-characterized pluripotency regulators. Sall4 plays an important role in governing the fate of stem cells through transcriptional regulation of both Oct4 and Nanog. By using chromatin immunoprecipitation coupled to microarray hybridization (ChIP-on-chip), we have mapped global gene targets of Sall4 to further investigate regulatory processes in W4 mouse ES cells. A total of 3,223 genes were identified that were bound by the Sall4 protein on duplicate assays with high confidence, and many of these have major functions in developmental and regulatory pathways.

SUBMITTER: Yang J 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC2604985 | biostudies-literature | 2008 Dec

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature