The TRIM-NHL protein LIN-41 controls the onset of developmental plasticity in Caenorhabditis elegans.

ABSTRACT: The mechanisms controlling cell fate determination and reprogramming are fundamental for development. A profound reprogramming, allowing the production of pluripotent cells in early embryos, takes place during the oocyte-to-embryo transition. To understand how the oocyte reprogramming potential is controlled, we sought Caenorhabditis elegans mutants in which embryonic transcription is initiated precociously in germ cells. This screen identified LIN-41, a TRIM-NHL protein and a component of the somatic heterochronic pathway, as a temporal regulator of pluripotency in the germline. We found that LIN-41 is expressed in the cytoplasm of developing oocytes, which, in lin-41 mutants, acquire pluripotent characteristics of embryonic cells and form teratomas. To understand LIN-41 function in the g

SUBMITTER: Tocchini C 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4148191 | biostudies-literature | 2014 Aug

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature