ArticlePLoS biology2023
A new human embryonic cell type associated with activity of young transposable elements allows definition of the inner cell mass.
Article in PLoS biology, 2023. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 18 papers.
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Who cites it
18 citing papers in PubMed, 20 citations in OpenAlex.
- Endogenous retrovirus control of calbindin is essential for human early embryogenesis.Science advances · 2026Article
- Endogenous retroviral elements LTR8B and MER65 rewire PSG9 regulation to control trophoblast syncytialization and pre-eclampsia risk.Genome biology · 2026Article
- Transposable elements drive species-specific and tissue-specific transcriptomes in human development.Genome biology · 2025Article
- Evolution of antiviral host defenses against a backdrop of endogenous retroelements.Science (New York, N.Y.) · 2025Review
- Co-option of an endogenous retrovirus (LTR7-HERVH) in early human embryogenesis: becoming useful and going unnoticed.Mobile DNA · 2025Review
- Deep learning classification integrating embryo images with associated clinical information from ART cycles.Scientific reports · 2025Article
- Transposable elements may enhance antiviral resistance in HIV-1 elite controllers.Genome biology · 2025Article
- Negotiating the space and time conundrum in human zygotes: chaos theory in action.Journal of assisted reproduction and genetics · 2025Article
- Deconstructing genomic plasticity in the early human embryo: transposable elements having their way!Journal of assisted reproduction and genetics · 2024Article
- Retrotransposons in embryogenesis and neurodevelopment.Biochemical Society transactions · 2024Review
- Deregulation of oxidative phosphorylation pathways in embryos derived in vitro from prepubertal and pubertal heifers based on whole-transcriptome sequencing.BMC genomics · 2024Article
- Selection on synonymous sites: the unwanted transcript hypothesis.Nature reviews. Genetics · 2024Review
- Branching topology of the human embryo transcriptome revealed by Entropy Sort Feature Weighting.Development (Cambridge, England) · 2024Article
- Endogenous retrovirus HERVH-derived lncRNAProceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America · 2024Article
- Transposable elements may enhance antiviral resistance in HIV-1 elite controllers.bioRxiv : the preprint server for biology · 2023Article
- The Molecular Impacts of Retrotransposons in Development and Diseases.International journal of molecular sciences · 2023Review
- Staring at the onco-exaptation: the two-faced medley of an ancient retrovirus, HERVH.The Journal of clinical investigation · 2023Article
- The human embryo selection arena is associated with transposable element activity.PLoS biology · 2023Article
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11 authors at 4 institutions in 3 countries.
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Abstract
There remains much that we do not understand about the earliest stages of human development. On a gross level, there is evidence for apoptosis, but the nature of the affected cell types is unknown. Perhaps most importantly, the inner cell mass (ICM), from which the foetus is derived and hence of interest in reproductive health and regenerative medicine, has proven hard to define. Here, we provide a multi-method analysis of the early human embryo to resolve these issues. Single-cell analysis (on multiple independent datasets), supported by embryo visualisation, uncovers a common previously uncharacterised class of cells lacking commitment markers that segregates after embryonic gene activation (EGA) and shortly after undergo apoptosis. The discovery of this cell type allows us to clearly define their viable ontogenetic sisters, these being the cells of the ICM. While ICM is characterised by the activity of an Old non-transposing endogenous retrovirus (HERVH) that acts to suppress Young transposable elements, the new cell type, by contrast, expresses transpositionally competent Young elements and DNA-damage response genes. As the Young elements are RetroElements and the cells are excluded from the developmental process, we dub these REject cells. With these and ICM being characterised by differential mobile element activities, the human embryo may be a "selection arena" in which one group of cells selectively die, while other less damaged cells persist.
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Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.