Critical function of Prdm14 for the establishment of the germ cell lineage in mice (original) (raw)

Nature Genetics volume 40, pages 1016–1022 (2008)Cite this article

Abstract

Specification of germ cell fate is fundamental in development and heredity. Recent evidence indicates that in mice, specification of primordial germ cells (PGCs), the common source of both oocytes and spermatozoa, occurs through the integration of three key events: repression of the somatic program1, reacquisition of potential pluripotency2,3 and ensuing genome-wide epigenetic reprogramming4,5. Here we provide genetic evidence that Prdm14, a PR domain–containing transcriptional regulator with exclusive expression in the germ cell lineage and pluripotent cell lines, is critical in two of these events, the reacquisition of potential pluripotency and successful epigenetic reprogramming. In Prdm14 mutants, the failure of these two events manifests even in the presence of Prdm1 (also known as Blimp1), a key transcriptional regulator for PGC specification6,7. Our combined evidence demonstrates that Prdm14 defines a previously unknown genetic pathway, initiating independently from Prdm1, for ensuring the launching of the mammalian germ cell lineage.

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Acknowledgements

We thank A. Miyawaki (RIKEN) for the Venus plasmid, S. Yamanaka (Kyoto University) for the antibody to Sox2, Y. Shinkai and M. Tachibana (Kyoto University) for the antibody to GLP, A. Tarakhovsky (Rockefeller University) and D. O'Carroll (EMBL) for the _Prdm1_-knockout mice, B. Hogan (Duke University) and K. Lawson (University of Edinburgh) for the _Bmp4_-knockout mice and K. Hayashi (University of Cambridge) for the _Smad1_-knockout mice. We thank D. Sipp for his help in manuscript preparation. Y.S., K.K. and Y.O. are fellows in the Special Postdoctoral Researchers Program of RIKEN. This study was supported in part by a Grant-in-Aid from the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science, and Technology of Japan and by a PRESTO project grant from the Japan Science and Technology Agency.

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Author notes

  1. Masashi Yamaji, Yoshiyuki Seki and Kazuki Kurimoto: These authors contributed equally to this work.

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Laboratory for Mammalian Germ Cell Biology, Center for Developmental Biology, RIKEN Kobe Institute, 2-2-3 Minatojima-Minamimachi, Chuo-ku, 650-0047, Kobe, Japan
    Masashi Yamaji, Yoshiyuki Seki, Kazuki Kurimoto, Yukihiro Yabuta, Mihoko Yuasa, Mayo Shigeta, Kaori Yamanaka, Yasuhide Ohinata & Mitinori Saitou
  2. Laboratory of Molecular Cell Biology and Development, Graduate School of Biostudies, Kyoto University, Yoshida-Konoe-cho, Sakyo-ku, 606-8501, Kyoto, Japan
    Masashi Yamaji & Mitinori Saitou

Authors

  1. Masashi Yamaji
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  2. Yoshiyuki Seki
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  3. Kazuki Kurimoto
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  4. Yukihiro Yabuta
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  5. Mihoko Yuasa
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  6. Mayo Shigeta
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  7. Kaori Yamanaka
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  8. Yasuhide Ohinata
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  9. Mitinori Saitou
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Contributions

M. Yamaji, Y.S. and M. Saitou designed this study. M. Yamaji, Y.S. and K.K. performed phenotype assessment. M. Saitou, Y.Y. and Y.O. helped phenotype assessment. M. Yuasa, M. Shigeta and K.Y. helped generation and propagation of the mouse strains. M. Saitou wrote this paper.

Corresponding author

Correspondence toMitinori Saitou.

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Yamaji, M., Seki, Y., Kurimoto, K. et al. Critical function of Prdm14 for the establishment of the germ cell lineage in mice.Nat Genet 40, 1016–1022 (2008). https://doi.org/10.1038/ng.186

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