Nanog Fluctuations in Embryonic Stem Cells Highlight the Problem of Measurement in Cell Biology.

ABSTRACT: A number of important pluripotency regulators, including the transcription factor Nanog, are observed to fluctuate stochastically in individual embryonic stem cells. By transiently priming cells for commitment to different lineages, these fluctuations are thought to be important to the maintenance of, and exit from, pluripotency. However, because temporal changes in intracellular protein abundances cannot be measured directly in live cells, fluctuations are typically assessed using genetically engineered reporter cell lines that produce a fluorescent signal as a proxy for protein expression. Here, using a combination of mathematical modeling and experiment, we show that there are unforeseen ways in which widely used reporter strategies can systematically disturb the dynamics they are inten

SUBMITTER: Smith RCG 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC5479053 | biostudies-literature | 2017 Jun

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature