Conserved roles of mouse DUX and human DUX4 in activating cleavage-stage genes and MERVL/HERVL retrotransposons.

ABSTRACT: To better understand transcriptional regulation during human oogenesis and preimplantation development, we defined stage-specific transcription, which highlighted the cleavage stage as being highly distinctive. Here, we present multiple lines of evidence that a eutherian-specific multicopy retrogene, DUX4, encodes a transcription factor that activates hundreds of endogenous genes (for example, ZSCAN4, KDM4E and PRAMEF-family genes) and retroviral elements (MERVL/HERVL family) that define the cleavage-specific transcriptional programs in humans and mice. Remarkably, mouse Dux expression is both necessary and sufficient to convert mouse embryonic stem cells (mESCs) into 2-cell-embryo-like ('2C-like') cells, measured here by the reactivation of '2C' genes and repeat elements, the loss of POU5

SUBMITTER: Hendrickson PG 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC5703070 | biostudies-literature | 2017 Jun

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature