Lineage-Specific Early Differentiation of Human Embryonic Stem Cells Requires a G2 Cell Cycle Pause.

ABSTRACT: Human embryonic stem cells (hESCs) have an abbreviated G1 phase of the cell cycle that allows rapid proliferation and maintenance of pluripotency. Lengthening of G1 corresponds to loss of pluripotency during differentiation. However, precise mechanisms that link alterations in the cell cycle and early differentiation remain to be defined. We investigated initial stages of mesendodermal lineage commitment in hESCs, and observed a cell cycle pause. Transcriptome profiling identified several genes with known roles in regulation of the G2/M transition that were differentially expressed early during lineage commitment. WEE1 kinase, which blocks entry into mitosis by phosphorylating CDK1 at Y15, was the most highly expressed of these genes. Inhibition of CDK1 phosphorylation by a specific inhibi

SUBMITTER: Van Oudenhove JJ 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4931987 | biostudies-literature | 2016 Jul

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature