title: Reprogramming to pluripotency is an ancient trait of vertebrate Oct4 and Pou2 proteins.
abstract: The evolutionary origins of the gene network underlying cellular pluripotency, a central theme in developmental biology, have yet to be elucidated. In mammals, Oct4 is a factor crucial in the reprogramming of differentiated cells into induced pluripotent stem cells. The Oct4 and Pou2 genes evolved from a POU class V gene ancestor, but it is unknown whether pluripotency induced by Oct4 gene activity is a feature specific to mammals or was already present in ancestral vertebrates. Here we report that different vertebrate Pou2 and Oct4 homologues can induce pluripotency in mouse and human fibroblasts and that the inability of zebrafish Pou2 to establish pluripotency is not representative of all Pou2 genes, as medaka Pou2 and axolotl Pou2 are able to reprogram somatic cells into pluripotent cells. Therefore, our results indicate that induction of pluripotency is not a feature specific to mammals, but existed in the Oct4/Pou2 common ancestral vertebrate.
authors.affiliation: Department of Cell and Developmental Biology, Max Planck Institute for Molecular Biomedicine, Röntgenstrasse 20, 48149 Münster, Germany.
authors.forename: Natalia
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Tapia
authors.forename: Peter
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Reinhardt
authors.forename: Annett
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Duemmler
authors.forename: Guangming
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Wu
authors.forename: Marcos J
authors.initials: MJ
authors.lastname: Araúzo-Bravo
authors.forename: Daniel
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Esch
authors.forename: Boris
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Greber
authors.forename: Vlad
authors.initials: V
authors.lastname: Cojocaru
authors.forename: Cynthia Alexander
authors.initials: CA
authors.lastname: Rascon
authors.forename: Akira
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Tazaki
authors.forename: Kevin
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Kump
authors.forename: Randal
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Voss
authors.forename: Elly M
authors.initials: EM
authors.lastname: Tanaka
authors.forename: Hans R
authors.initials: HR
authors.lastname: Schöler
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000558:Ambystoma mexicanum / Q000196:embryology / Q000502:physiology; D000818:Animals; D005075:Biological Evolution; D002454:Cell Differentiation / Q000502:physiology*; D003001:Cloning, Molecular; D005260:Female; D005347:Fibroblasts / Q000502:physiology; D006801:Humans; D017403:In Situ Hybridization; D051379:Mice; D008875:Middle Aged; D050814:Octamer Transcription Factor-3 / Q000502:physiology*; D009990:Oryzias / Q000502:physiology; D010802:Phylogeny; D039904:Pluripotent Stem Cells / Q000502:physiology*; D014714:Vertebrates / Q000502:physiology*; D015027:Zebrafish / Q000502:physiology; D029961:Zebrafish Proteins / Q000502:physiology*
chemical_list: D050814:Octamer Transcription Factor-3; C494174:Pou5f1 protein, mouse; C085437:Pou5f3 protein, zebrafish; D029961:Zebrafish Proteins