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The epigenetics of early development: Inferences from stem cells
Author(s) -
Rasmussen Theodore P.
Publication year - 2014
Publication title -
molecular reproduction and development
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.745
H-Index - 105
eISSN - 1098-2795
pISSN - 1040-452X
DOI - 10.1002/mrd.22269
Subject(s) - biology , epiblast , epigenome , epigenetics , inner cell mass , blastocyst , dna methylation , embryonic stem cell , stem cell , chromatin , genetics , microbiology and biotechnology , zygote , transcriptome , histone , epigenomics , embryo , embryogenesis , gene , gene expression , gastrulation
SUMMARY Approximately 200 cell types and multiple tissues are established throughout the development of the zygote to an adult mammal. During this process, the cellular genome remains fixed, yet the transcriptome of each of the cell types become widely divergent. This review discusses the epigenetics of preimplantation embryos and the use of embryonic stem cells (ESCs) and epiblast stem cells (EpiSCs) as cell‐culture models for the inner cell mass (ICM) and epiblast, respectively. Differential patterns of transcription are set up during development by the action of key transcription factors and epigenetics, which are involved in the establishment and maintenance of stable transcriptional states during development. In early embryos, for example, changes in the epigenome consist of alterations to the methylation of CpG dinucleotides and post‐translational modification of histones within chromatin. In addition, histone replacement occurs broadly in zygotes. The ICM of the blastocyst, on the other hand, has the amazing ability to contribute to every tissue and cell type present in the adult body. Therefore, ESCs are arguably the most important cell‐culture model available to developmental biologists. The advantages and risks of using ESCs to model ICM pluripotency are therefore discussed. Mol. Reprod. Dev. 81: 194–201, 2014. © 2013 Wiley Periodicals, Inc .