ArticleProceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America2013
A set of genes critical to development is epigenetically poised in mouse germ cells from fetal stages through completion of meiosis.
Article in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, 2013. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 97 papers.
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97 citing papers in PubMed, 171 citations in OpenAlex.
- Article
- Ancestral chromatin state constrains the functional landscape of bivalent domains in mammalian spermatogenesis.bioRxiv : the preprint server for biology · 2026Article
- Complementary constraints in germ and immune cells shape evolution of gene regulation and phenotype.bioRxiv : the preprint server for biology · 2026Article
- Reprogramming the inactive X chromosome: dynamics and insights from the germline.Biochemical Society transactions · 2026Review
- Histone lysine demethylases in breast cancer: molecular mechanisms, biological functions, and therapeutic intervention.Molecular cancer · 2025Review
- The SMARCA5-DMRT1 Pioneer Complex Establishes Epigenetic Priming to Direct Male Germline Development.Research square · 2025Article
- Protamine lacunae preserve the paternal chromatin landscape in sperm.bioRxiv : the preprint server for biology · 2025Article
- CTCF-mediated 3D chromatin sets up the gene expression program in the male germline.Nature structural & molecular biology · 2025Article
- Setd2 overexpression rescues bivalent gene expression during SCNT-mediated ZGA.Protein & cell · 2025Article
- Deciphering the role of histone modifications in memory and exhausted CD8 T cells.Scientific reports · 2025Article
- SETD1B-mediated broad H3K4me3 controls proper temporal patterns of gene expression critical for spermatid development.Cell research · 2025Article
- Article
- Site-specific DNA demethylation during spermatogenesis presets the sites of nucleosome retention in mouse sperm.bioRxiv : the preprint server for biology · 2025Article
- Profiling Histone Modifications in Differentiating Mouse Spermatogonia with CUT&Tag.Methods in molecular biology (Clifton, N.J.) · 2025Article
- Human-specific epigenomic states in spermatogenesis.Computational and structural biotechnology journal · 2024Article
- Single-nucleus multiomics reveals the gene-regulatory networks underlying sex determination of murine primordial germ cells.bioRxiv : the preprint server for biology · 2024Article
- Epigenetic priming in the male germline.Current opinion in genetics & development · 2024Review
- Iterative oxidation by TET1 is required for reprogramming of imprinting control regions and patterning of mouse sperm hypomethylated regions.Developmental cell · 2024Article
- PRC1 directs PRC2-H3K27me3 deposition to shield adult spermatogonial stem cells from differentiation.Nucleic acids research · 2024Article
- KDM6A/UTX promotes spermatogenic gene expression across generations and is not required for male fertility†.Biology of reproduction · 2024Article
37 more citing papers are in PubMed but not listed here.
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5 authors at 3 institutions in 1 country.
Funding
Abstract
In multicellular organisms, germ cells carry the hereditary material from one generation to the next. Developing germ cells are unipotent gamete precursors, and mature gametes are highly differentiated, specialized cells. However, upon gamete union at fertilization, their genomes drive a totipotent program, giving rise to a complete embryo as well as extraembryonic tissues. The biochemical basis for the ability to transition from differentiated cell to totipotent zygote is unknown. Here we report that a set of developmentally critical genes is maintained in an epigenetically poised (bivalent) state from embryonic stages through the end of meiosis. We performed ChIP-seq and RNA-seq analysis on flow-sorted male and female germ cells during embryogenesis at three time points surrounding sexual differentiation and female meiotic initiation, and then extended our analysis to meiotic and postmeiotic male germ cells. We identified a set of genes that is highly enriched for regulators of differentiation and retains a poised state (high H3K4me3, high H3K27me3, and lack of expression) across sexes and across developmental stages, including in haploid postmeiotic cells. The existence of such a state in embryonic stem cells has been well described. We now demonstrate that a subset of genes is maintained in a poised state in the germ line from the initiation of sexual differentiation during fetal development and into postmeiotic stages. We propose that the epigenetically poised condition of these developmental genes is a fundamental property of the mammalian germ-line nucleus, allowing differentiated gametes to unleash a totipotent program following fertilization.
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