Anti-OTX2 (Internal) polyclonal antibody

Gene regulatory networks (GRNs) regulate critical events during development. In complex tissues, such as the mammalian central nervous system (CNS), networks likely provide the complex regulatory interactions needed to direct the specification of the many CNS cell types. Here, we dissect a GRN that regulates a binary fate decision between two siblings in the murine retina, the rod photoreceptor and bipolar interneuron. The GRN centers on Blimp1, one of the transcription factors (TFs) that regulates the rod versus bipolar cell fate decision. We identified a cis-regulatory module (CRM), B108, that mimics Blimp1 expression. Deletion of genomic B108 by CRISPR/Cas9 in vivo using electroporation abolished the function of Blimp1. Otx2 and ROR beta were found to regulate Blimp1 expression via B108, and Blimp1 and Otx2 were shown to form a negative feedback loop that regulates the level of Otx2, which regulates the production of the correct ratio of rods and bipolar cells.

The ability of induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs) to differentiate into all adult cell types makes them attractive for research and regenerative medicine; however, it remains unknown when and how this capacity is established. We characterized the acquisition of developmental pluripotency in a suitable reprogramming system to show that iPSCs prior to passaging become capable of generating all tissues upon injection into preimplantation embryos. The developmental potential of nascent iPSCs is comparable to or even surpasses that of established pluripotent cells. Further functional assays and genome-wide molecular analyses suggest that cells acquiring developmental pluripotency exhibit a unique combination of properties that distinguish them from canonical naive and primed pluripotency states. These include reduced clonal self-renewal potential and the elevated expression of differentiation-associated transcriptional regulators. Our observations close a gap in the understanding of induced pluripotency and provide an improved roadmap of cellular reprogramming with ramifications for the use of iPSCs.