Origin of cellular asymmetries in the pre-implantation mouse embryo: a hypothesis |
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Authors: | Katsuyoshi Takaoka Hiroshi Hamada |
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Institution: | 1.Developmental Genetics Group, Graduate School of Frontier Biosciences, Osaka University, 1–3 Yamada-oka, Suita, Osaka 565-0871, Japan;2.CREST, Japan Science and Technology Corporation (JST), Osaka University, 1–3 Yamada-oka, Suita, Osaka 565-0871, Japan |
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Abstract: | The first cell fate decision during mouse development concerns whether a blastomere will contribute to the inner cell mass (ICM; which gives rise to the embryo proper) or to trophectoderm (TE; which gives rise to the placenta). The position of a cell within an 8- to 16-cell-stage embryo correlates with its future fate, with outer cells contributing to TE and inner cells to the ICM. It remains unknown, however, whether an earlier pre-pattern exists. Here, we propose a hypothesis that could account for generation of such a pre-pattern and which is based on epigenetic asymmetry (such as in histone or DNA methylation) between maternal and paternal genomes in the zygote. |
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Keywords: | cell fate epigenetic mouse embryo pre-implantation |
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