Transcription factor heterogeneity in pluripotent stem cells: a stochastic advantage

When pluripotent cells are exposed to a uniform culture environment they routinely display heterogeneous gene expression. Aspects of this heterogeneity, such as Nanog expression, are linked to differences in the propensity of individual cells to either self-renew or commit towards differentiation. Recent findings have provided new insight into the underlying causes of this heterogeneity, which we summarise here using Nanog, a key regulator of pluripotency, as a model gene. We discuss the role of transcription factor heterogeneity in facilitating the intrinsically dynamic and stochastic nature of the pluripotency network, which in turn provides a potential benefit to a population of cells that needs to balance cell fate decisions.

• Publication year

  2014

• Venue

  Development

• Publication date

  2014-06-01

• Fields of study

  Biology, Medicine

• Identifiers
  DOI 10.1242/dev.102624PMID 24866112
• External record

  Open on Semantic Scholar

• Source metadata

  Semantic Scholar, PubMed

• No claims are published for this paper.

• No concepts are published for this paper.

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