Source: University of California - Los Angeles
Date: December 15, 2009
Summary:
Tissue-specific genes, thought to be dormant or not marked for activation in embryonic stem cells, are indeed marked by transcription factors, with proper marking potentially crucial for the function of tissues derived from stem cells.
The finding in the study by researchers at the Broad Stem Cell Research Center involves a class of genes whose properties previously were thought to be unimportant for stem cell function. Most research has instead focused on genes that regulate a pluripotency network and genes that regulate differentiation of embryonic stem cells into other cell lineages.
The Broad center researchers focused on a third class of genes, those expressed only in defined cell types or tissues, which generally remain silent until long after embryonic stem cells have differentiated into specific cell lineages. The study is published in the Dec. 15, 2009 issue of the peer-reviewed journal Genes and Development.
