TY - JOUR
T1 - On Mammalian Totipotency
T2 - What Is the Molecular Underpinning for the Totipotency of Zygote?
AU - Hu, Kejin
N1 - Funding Information:
This research is supported by the National Institutes of Health (1R01GM127411) and the American Heart Association (17GRNT3367080). I greatly appreciate the constructive comments by the two anonymous reviewers
Funding Information:
This research is supported by the National Institutes of Health (1R01GM127411) and the American Heart Asso- ciation (17GRNT3367080). I greatly appreciate the constructive comments by the two anonymous reviewers.
Publisher Copyright:
© Kejin Hu, 2019; Published by Mary Ann Liebert, Inc. 2019.
PY - 2019/7/15
Y1 - 2019/7/15
N2 - The mammalian zygote is described as a totipotent cell in the literature, but this characterization is elusive ignoring the molecular underpinnings. Totipotency can connote genetic totipotency, epigenetic totipotency, or the reprogramming capacity of a cell to epigenetic totipotency. Here, the implications of these concepts are discussed in the context of the properties of the zygote. Although genetically totipotent as any diploid somatic cell is, a zygote seems not totipotent transcriptionally, epigenetically, or functionally. Yet, a zygote may retain most of the key factors from its parental oocyte to reprogram an implanted differentiated genome or the zygote genome toward totipotency. This totipotent reprogramming process may extend to blastomeres in the two-cell-stage embryo. Thus, a revised alternative model of mammalian cellular totipotency is proposed, in which an epigenetically totipotent cell exists after the major embryonic genome activation and before the separation of the first two embryonic lineages.
AB - The mammalian zygote is described as a totipotent cell in the literature, but this characterization is elusive ignoring the molecular underpinnings. Totipotency can connote genetic totipotency, epigenetic totipotency, or the reprogramming capacity of a cell to epigenetic totipotency. Here, the implications of these concepts are discussed in the context of the properties of the zygote. Although genetically totipotent as any diploid somatic cell is, a zygote seems not totipotent transcriptionally, epigenetically, or functionally. Yet, a zygote may retain most of the key factors from its parental oocyte to reprogram an implanted differentiated genome or the zygote genome toward totipotency. This totipotent reprogramming process may extend to blastomeres in the two-cell-stage embryo. Thus, a revised alternative model of mammalian cellular totipotency is proposed, in which an epigenetically totipotent cell exists after the major embryonic genome activation and before the separation of the first two embryonic lineages.
KW - blastomere
KW - embryogenesis
KW - embryonic stem cells
KW - epigenetic totipotency
KW - reprogramming
KW - totipotency
KW - zygote
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85069217453&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1089/scd.2019.0057
DO - 10.1089/scd.2019.0057
M3 - Article
C2 - 31122174
AN - SCOPUS:85069217453
SN - 1547-3287
VL - 28
SP - 897
EP - 906
JO - Stem Cells and Development
JF - Stem Cells and Development
IS - 14
ER -