Asynchronous fate decisions by single cells collectively ensure consistent lineage composition in the mouse blastocyst.

ABSTRACT: Intercellular communication is essential to coordinate the behaviour of individual cells during organismal development. The preimplantation mammalian embryo is a paradigm of tissue self-organization and regulative development; however, the cellular basis of these regulative abilities has not been established. Here we use a quantitative image analysis pipeline to undertake a high-resolution, single-cell level analysis of lineage specification in the inner cell mass (ICM) of the mouse blastocyst. We show that a consistent ratio of epiblast and primitive endoderm lineages is achieved through incremental allocation of cells from a common progenitor pool, and that the lineage composition of the ICM is conserved regardless of its size. Furthermore, timed modulation of the FGF-MAPK pathway shows

SUBMITTER: Saiz N 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC5120222 | biostudies-literature | 2016 Nov

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature