OCT4 is expressed in extraembryonic endoderm stem (XEN) cell progenitors during somatic cell reprogramming.

During development, progenitors of embryonic stem (ES) and extraembryonic endoderm stem (XEN) cells are concomitantly specified within the inner cell mass (ICM) of the mouse blastocyst. Similarly, XEN cells are induced (iXEN cells) alongside induced pluripotent stem (iPS) cells following overexpression of Oct4, Sox2, Klf4 and Myc (OSKM) during somatic cell reprogramming. It is unclear how or why this cocktail produces both stem cell types, but OCT4 has been associated with non-pluripotent outcomes. In this report, we show that, during OSKM reprogramming, many individual Oct4-GFP-expressing cells are fated to become iXEN cells. Interestingly, SKM alone was also sufficient to induce iXEN cell formation, likely via activation of endogenous Oct4. These observations indicate that iXEN cell formation is not strictly an artifact of Oct4 overexpression. Moreover, our results suggest that a pathway to XEN may be an integral feature of establishing pluripotency during reprogramming, as in early embryo development.

Multifaceted SOX2-chromatin interaction underpins pluripotency progression in early embryos.

Pioneer transcription factors (TFs), such as OCT4 and SOX2, play crucial roles in pluripotency regulation. However, the master TF-governed pluripotency regulatory circuitry was largely inferred from cultured cells. In this work, we investigated SOX2 binding from embryonic day 3.5 (E3.5) to E7.5 in the mouse. In E3.5 inner cell mass (ICM), SOX2 regulates the ICM-trophectoderm program but is dispensable for opening global enhancers. Instead, SOX2 occupies preaccessible enhancers in part opened by early-stage expressing TFs TFAP2C and NR5A2. SOX2 then widely redistributes when cells adopt naive and formative pluripotency by opening enhancers or poising them for rapid future activation. Hence, multifaceted pioneer TF-enhancer interaction underpins pluripotency progression in embryos, including a distinctive state in E3.5 ICM that bridges totipotency and pluripotency.

OSKM Induce Extraembryonic Endoderm Stem Cells in Parallel to Induced Pluripotent Stem Cells.

The reprogramming factors OCT4, SOX2, KLF4, and MYC (OSKM) can reactivate the pluripotency network in terminally differentiated cells, but also regulate expression of non-pluripotency genes in other contexts, such as the mouse primitive endoderm. The primitive endoderm is an extraembryonic lineage established in parallel to the pluripotent epiblast in the blastocyst, and is the progenitor pool for extraembryonic endoderm stem (XEN) cells. We show that OSKM induce expression of endodermal genes, leading to formation of induced XEN (iXEN) cells, which possess key properties of blastocyst-derived XEN cells, including morphology, transcription profile, self-renewal, and multipotency. Our data show that iXEN cells arise in parallel to induced pluripotent stem cells, indicating that OSKM drive cells to two distinct cell fates during reprogramming.

Oct4 cell-autonomously promotes primitive endoderm development in the mouse blastocyst.

In embryonic stem (ES) cells and in early mouse embryos, the transcription factor Oct4 is an essential regulator of pluripotency. Oct4 transcriptional targets have been described in ES cell lines; however, the molecular mechanisms by which Oct4 regulates establishment of pluripotency in the epiblast (EPI) have not been fully elucidated. Here, we show that neither maternal nor zygotic Oct4 is required for the formation of EPI cells in the blastocyst. Rather, Oct4 is first required for development of the primitive endoderm (PE), an extraembryonic lineage. EPI cells promote PE fate in neighboring cells by secreting Fgf4, and Oct4 is required for expression of Fgf4, but we show that Oct4 promotes PE development cell-autonomously, downstream of Fgf4 and Mapk. Finally, we show that Oct4 is required for the expression of multiple EPI and PE genes as well as multiple metabolic pathways essential for the continued growth of the preimplantation embryo.

Shifted, the Drosophila ortholog of Wnt inhibitory factor-1, controls the distribution and movement of Hedgehog.

We here identify and characterize an extracellular modulator of Hedgehog signaling in Drosophila, Shifted. Shifted is required for high levels of long-range signaling in the developing wing imaginal disc. Surprisingly, shifted encodes the only Drosophila ortholog of the secreted vertebrate protein Wnt Inhibitory Factor-1 (WIF-1), whose known role is to bind to extracellular Wnts and inhibit their activity. However, Shifted does not regulate Hedgehog signaling by affecting Wingless or Wnt signaling. We show instead that Shifted is a secreted protein that acts over a long distance and is required for the normal accumulation of Hh protein and its movement in the wing. Our data further indicate that Shf interacts with Hh and the heparan sulfate proteoglycans. Therefore, we propose that Shf stabilizes the interaction between Hh and the proteoglycans, an unexpected role for a member of the WIF-1 family.