Project description:Although nuclear transfer allows the reprogramming of somatic cells to totipotency, little is known concerning the kinetics by which it takes place or the minimum requirements for its success. Here, we demonstrate that reprogramming can be achieved within a few hours and a single cell-cycle as long as two key constraints on reprogramming are satisfied. First, the recipient cell chromosomes must be removed during mitosis. Second, the nuclear envelope of the donor cell must be broken down and its chromosomes condensed, allowing an embryonic nucleus to be constructed around the incoming chromosomes. If these requirements are not met, then reprogramming fails and embryonic development arrests. These results point to a central role for processes intimately linked to cell division in mediating efficient transitions between transcriptional programs. tail tip skin fibroblasts were transferred into mitotic mouse zygotes, blastomeres or oocytes.
Project description:Although nuclear transfer allows the reprogramming of somatic cells to totipotency, little is known concerning the kinetics by which it takes place or the minimum requirements for its success. Here, we demonstrate that reprogramming can be achieved within a few hours and a single cell-cycle as long as two key constraints on reprogramming are satisfied. First, the recipient cell chromosomes must be removed during mitosis. Second, the nuclear envelope of the donor cell must be broken down and its chromosomes condensed, allowing an embryonic nucleus to be constructed around the incoming chromosomes. If these requirements are not met, then reprogramming fails and embryonic development arrests. These results point to a central role for processes intimately linked to cell division in mediating efficient transitions between transcriptional programs.
Project description:Somatic cells can be reprogrammed to a pluripotent state by nuclear transfer into oocytes, yet developmental arrest often occurs. While incomplete transcriptional reprogramming is known to cause developmental failure, reprogramming also involves concurrent changes in gene expression, cell cycle progression and nuclear structure. Here we study cellular reprogramming events in human and mouse nuclear transfer (NT) embryos prior to embryonic genome activation. We show that genetic instability marked by frequent chromosome segregation errors and DNA damage arise prior to, and independent of, transcriptional activity. These errors occur following transition through DNA replication and are repaired by BRCA1. In the absence of mitotic nuclear remodeling, DNA replication is delayed and errors are exacerbated in subsequent mitosis. These results demonstrate that independent of gene expression, cell type-specific features of cell cycle progression constitute a barrier sufficient to prevent the transition from one cell type to another during reprogramming.