title: Driving pluripotency and reprogramming: nuclear receptors at the helm.
abstract: The identity of a cell is determined by the concerted interplay of multiple molecular modulators such as transcription factors, chromatin modifiers and signalling mediators. Among these, the transcriptional circuitry holds great influence on the specification and maintenance of a cellular state, and its perturbation can trigger a transition to another cell state. This is particularly striking in the field of pluripotency, where tempering the expression levels of one or few transcription factors is sufficient to induce the loss or acquisition of the pluripotent state. Recently, nuclear receptors, a class of transcription factors, have emerged as major players in the molecular network governing pluripotency. In this review, we discuss the importance of nuclear receptors in embryonic stem cell self-renewal, differentiation and cellular reprogramming, highlighting recent discoveries as well as providing an outlook in stem cell and nuclear receptor research.
authors.affiliation: Gene Regulation Laboratory, Genome Institute of Singapore, Singapore 138672, Singapore; NUS Graduate School for Integrative Sciences and Engineering, National University of Singapore, Singapore 117456, Singapore. Electronic address: gonzaleskau99@gis.a-star.edu.sg.
authors.forename: Kevin Andrew Uy
authors.initials: KA
authors.lastname: Gonzales
authors.forename: Huck-Hui
authors.initials: HH
authors.lastname: Ng
mesh_terms: D065150:Cellular Reprogramming; D053595:Embryonic Stem Cells / Q000166:cytology / Q000378:metabolism; D006801:Humans; D039904:Pluripotent Stem Cells / Q000166:cytology / Q000378:metabolism*; D018160:Receptors, Cytoplasmic and Nuclear / Q000378:metabolism*
chemical_list: D018160:Receptors, Cytoplasmic and Nuclear
keywords: Embryonic stem cell; Nuclear receptor; Pluripotency; Reprogramming