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Programmable genetic switches to control transcriptional machinery of pluripotency
Author(s) -
Pandian Ganesh N.,
Sugiyama Hiroshi
Publication year - 2012
Publication title -
biotechnology journal
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.144
H-Index - 84
eISSN - 1860-7314
pISSN - 1860-6768
DOI - 10.1002/biot.201100361
Subject(s) - reprogramming , chromatin , induced pluripotent stem cell , somatic cell , biology , microbiology and biotechnology , cell potency , klf4 , cell fate determination , transcriptional regulation , cellular differentiation , sox2 , transcription factor , embryonic stem cell , cell , genetics , gene
Transcriptional activators play a central role in the regulation of gene expression and have the ability to manipulate the specification of cell fate. Pluripotency is a transient state where a cell has the potential to develop into more than one type of mature cell. The induction of pluripotency in differentiated cells requires extensive chromatin reorganization regulated by core transcriptional machinery. Several small molecules have been shown to enhance the efficiency of somatic cell reprogramming into pluripotent stem cells. However, entirely chemical‐based reprogramming remains elusive. Recently, we reported that selective DNA‐binding hairpin pyrrole‐imidazole polyamides conjugated with histone deacetylase inhibitor could mimic natural transcription factors and epigenetically activate certain pluripotency‐associated genes. Here, we review the need to develop selective chromatin‐modifying transcriptional activators for somatic genome reprogramming.