ArticleNature communications2024
The emergence of Sox and POU transcription factors predates the origins of animal stem cells.
Article in Nature communications, 2024. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 15 papers.
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Who cites it
15 citing papers in PubMed.
- Article
- Memory encoding reprograms neuronal transcriptional responses via durable chromatin remodeling.bioRxiv : the preprint server for biology · 2026Article
- SOX5 Orchestrates Malignant Evolution via Promoter-Centric Chromatin Remodeling in MYC-Driven B-Cell Lymphoma.Advanced science (Weinheim, Baden-Wurttemberg, Germany) · 2026Article
- RHEBL1 expression is activated by the Oct4-Sox2 complex in oral squamous cell carcinoma.Functional & integrative genomics · 2026Article
- Article
- Evolutionary turnover of key amino acids explains conservation of function without conservation of sequence in transcriptional activation domains.PLoS genetics · 2026Article
- A smartphone analogy to explore the origin of animals.The EMBO journal · 2026Review
- Genome-wide identification, evolutionary diversification and developmental expression of the Sox gene family in three brachyuran crabs.BMC genomics · 2026Article
- Molecular basis of DNA recognition by the HMG-box-C1 module of capicua.Structure (London, England : 1993) · 2025Article
- The evolutionary foundations of transcriptional regulation in animals.Nature reviews. Genetics · 2025Review
- Chromatin profiling identifies putative dual roles for H3K27me3 in regulating cell type-specific genes and transposable elements in choanoflagellates.Nature communications · 2025Article
- The interplay between driver mutation and oxidative stress in colorectal cancer: from pathogenesis to therapeutics.Journal of translational medicine · 2025Review
- A close unicellular relative reveals aggregative multicellularity was key to the evolution of animals.bioRxiv : the preprint server for biology · 2025Article
- Up-regulated microRNAs in blastocoel fluid of human implanted embryos could control circuits of pluripotency and be related to embryo competence.Journal of assisted reproduction and genetics · 2025Article
- An acidic residue within the OCT4 dimerization interface of SOX17 is necessary and sufficient to overcome its pluripotency-inducing activity.Stem cell reports · 2025Article
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
14 authors.
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Abstract
Stem cells are a hallmark of animal multicellularity. Sox and POU transcription factors are associated with stemness and were believed to be animal innovations, reported absent in their unicellular relatives. Here we describe unicellular Sox and POU factors. Choanoflagellate and filasterean Sox proteins have DNA-binding specificity similar to mammalian Sox2. Choanoflagellate-but not filasterean-Sox can replace Sox2 to reprogram mouse somatic cells into induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs) through interacting with the mouse POU member Oct4. In contrast, choanoflagellate POU has a distinct DNA-binding profile and cannot generate iPSCs. Ancestrally reconstructed Sox proteins indicate that iPSC formation capacity is pervasive among resurrected sequences, thus loss of Sox2-like properties fostered Sox family subfunctionalization. Our findings imply that the evolution of animal stem cells might have involved the exaptation of a pre-existing set of transcription factors, where pre-animal Sox was biochemically similar to extant Sox, whilst POU factors required evolutionary innovations.
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