Geminin cooperates with Polycomb to restrain multi-lineage commitment in the early embryo.

ABSTRACT: Transient maintenance of a pluripotent embryonic cell population followed by the onset of multi-lineage commitment is a fundamental aspect of development. However, molecular regulation of this transition is not well characterized in vivo. Here, we demonstrate that the nuclear protein Geminin is required to restrain commitment and spatially restrict mesoderm, endoderm and non-neural ectoderm to their proper locations in the Xenopus embryo. We used microarray analyses to demonstrate that Geminin overexpression represses many genes associated with cell commitment and differentiation, while elevating expression levels of genes that maintain pluripotent early and immature neurectodermal cell states. We characterized the relationship of Geminin to cell signaling and found that Geminin broadly re

SUBMITTER: Lim JW 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC2998164 | biostudies-literature | 2011 Jan

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature