Stem-cell niches: nursery rhymes across kingdoms.
Despite the large evolutionary distance between the plant and animal kingdoms, stem cells in both reside in specialized cellular contexts called stem-cell niches. Although stem-cell-specification factors have been recruited from plant-specific gene families, maintenance factors that repress stem-cell differentiation are conserved between plants and animals. Recent evidence indicates that stem cells in multicellular organisms can be specified by kingdom-specific patterning mechanisms that connect to a related core of epigenetic stem-cell factors.
Scheres
Ben
B
Molecular Genetics Group, Department of Biology, Utrecht University, Padualaan 8, 3584 CH Utrecht, the Netherlands. b.scheres@bio.uu.nl.
D000818:Animals; D019521:Body Patterning / Q000502:physiology; D042002:Chromatin Assembly and Disassembly / Q000502:physiology; D044127:Epigenesis, Genetic; D008954:Models, Biological; D059828:Plant Cells; D018517:Plant Roots / Q000166:cytology; D018520:Plant Shoots / Q000166:cytology; D012639:Seeds; D013234:Stem Cells / Q000166:cytology*