During the last year, we have further characterized Zscan4 in mouse 2-cell embryos and in the subpopulation of mouse ES cells. We found that other 2-cell-specific genes are also highly expressed in Zscan4(+) cells. This indicates that the subpopulation of ES cells marked by Zscan4 expression shows some resemblance to 2-cell embryos, whereas the majority of ES cells show similarity to the Inner Cell Mass (ICM) cells in blastocysts. We are currently carrying out the Zscan4 knockdown and knockout experiments.
| Carter, Mark G; Stagg, Carole A; Falco, Geppino et al. (2008) An in situ hybridization-based screen for heterogeneously expressed genes in mouse ES cells. Gene Expr Patterns 8:181-98 |
| Sharova, Lioudmila V; Sharov, Alexei A; Piao, Yulan et al. (2007) Global gene expression profiling reveals similarities and differences among mouse pluripotent stem cells of different origins and strains. Dev Biol 307:446-59 |
| Falco, Geppino; Lee, Sung-Lim; Stanghellini, Ilaria et al. (2007) Zscan4: a novel gene expressed exclusively in late 2-cell embryos and embryonic stem cells. Dev Biol 307:539-50 |
