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The evolutionary origins of the gene network underlying cellular pluripotency, a central theme in developmental biology, have yet to be elucidated. In mammals, Oct4 is a factor crucial in the reprogramming of differentiated cells into induced pluripotent stem cells. The Oct4 and Pou2 genes evolved from a POU class V gene ancestor, but it is unknown whether pluripotency induced by Oct4 gene activity is a feature specific to mammals or was already present in ancestral vertebrates. Here we report that different vertebrate Pou2 and Oct4 homologues can induce pluripotency in mouse and human fibroblasts and that the inability of zebrafish Pou2 to establish pluripotency is not representative of all Pou2 genes, as medaka Pou2 and axolotl Pou2 are able to reprogram somatic cells into pluripotent cells. Therefore, our results indicate that induction of pluripotency is not a feature specific to mammals, but existed in the Oct4/Pou2 common ancestral vertebrate.

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“…A contig assembly of axolotl sequences derived from Sanger 26,27 , 454 (ref. 28), and unpublished 454 sequences were assembled using MIRA 3.0.…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Reprogramming to pluripotency is an ancient trait of vertebrate Oct4 and Pou2 proteins

et al. 2012

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“…This type of strategy converts mRNA from expressed genes into cDNA, clones the cDNAs en masse to create a library, and then sequences into the cDNA inserts, reading several hundreds of bases into the ends of the original transcripts. In 2004, 17,352 ESTs were sequenced from two sources—mid-development, neural-tube-stage, embryos, and tail blastemas from 6 days post-amputation [28]. This study assembled the ESTs into 6,377 contigs, with average length at 569 bp, which was estimated to represent perhaps 25% of axolotl gene expression [28].…”

Section: Est Projects and Microarrays For Uncovering Regeneration Tramentioning

confidence: 99%

“…In 2004, 17,352 ESTs were sequenced from two sources—mid-development, neural-tube-stage, embryos, and tail blastemas from 6 days post-amputation [28]. This study assembled the ESTs into 6,377 contigs, with average length at 569 bp, which was estimated to represent perhaps 25% of axolotl gene expression [28]. The authors estimated 19% of transcript contigs to be unique to axolotl insofar as they did not match existing nucleotide or protein sequences then available in public databases.…”

Section: Est Projects and Microarrays For Uncovering Regeneration Tramentioning

confidence: 99%

Advances in Decoding Axolotl Limb Regeneration

Haas

Whited

2017

Trends in Genetics

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Humans and other mammals are limited in their natural abilities to regenerate lost body parts. In contrast, many salamanders are highly regenerative and can spontaneously replace lost limbs even as adults. As salamander limbs are anatomically similar to human limbs, knowing how they regenerate should provide important clues for regenerative medicine. Though interest in understanding the mechanics of this process has never waivered, until recently, researchers have been vexed by seemingly impenetrable logistics of working with these creatures at a molecular level. Chief among the problems has been the very large salamander genomes, and not a single salamander genome has been fully sequenced to date. Recently, the enormous gap in sequence information has been bridged by approaches that leverage mRNA as the starting point. Together with functional experimentation, this data is rapidly enabling researchers to finally uncover the molecular mechanisms underpinning the incredible biological process of limb regeneration.

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“…Significant effort has been put towards sequencing and organizing expressed sequence tags (ESTs) from Ambystoma mexicanum and Ambystoma tigrinum (Habermann et al, 2004; Putta et al, 2004). The Sal-Site at http://www.ambystoma.org (Smith et al, 2005) provides an Ambystoma gene collection and EST database that has allowed for approaches such as microarray analysis and high-throughput 454 cDNA sequencing to investigate aspects of limb regeneration on a broader level (Monaghan et al, 2007; Monaghan et al, 2009).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Gene expression profile of the regeneration epithelium during axolotl limb regeneration

Campbell¹,

Suárez-Castillo²,

Ortíz-Zuazaga³

et al. 2011

Developmental Dynamics

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Urodele amphibians are unique amongst adult vertebrates in their ability to regenerate missing limbs. The process of limb regeneration requires several key tissues including a regeneration-competent wound epidermis called the regeneration epithelium (RE). We used microarray analysis to profile gene expression of the RE in the axolotl, a Mexican salamander. A list of 125 genes and expressed sequence tags (ESTs) showed a ≥1.5 fold expression in the RE than in a wound epidermis covering a lateral cuff wound. A subset of the RE ESTs and genes were further characterized for expression level changes over the time-course of regeneration. This study provides the first large scale identification of specific gene expression in the RE.

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Cited by 68 publications

References 25 publications

Reprogramming to pluripotency is an ancient trait of vertebrate Oct4 and Pou2 proteins

Reprogramming to pluripotency is an ancient trait of vertebrate Oct4 and Pou2 proteins

Advances in Decoding Axolotl Limb Regeneration

Gene expression profile of the regeneration epithelium during axolotl limb regeneration

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