Nat Genet: Delaying DNA replication fork speeds leads to cell fate changes and enhances cell reprogramming efficiency

March 8, 2022 /Bio Valley BIOON/---Cell plasticity is a basic requirement of multicellular organisms

DNA replication is a fundamental process of inheritance and epigenetics

In the new study, the authors used DNA fiber analysis to investigate how pluripotent stem cells can be reprogrammed into totipotent-like 2-cell-like cells (2CLCs)

2CLCs co-occur with DNA replication and, compared with pluripotent cells, show changes in replication time (RT), especially early in S phase

Decreasing DNA replication fork velocity enhances the developmental potential of embryos after somatic cell nuclear transfer

Transplantation of terminally differentiated somatic cells into enucleated oocytes can be reprogrammed to totipotent cells

Taken together, these data suggest that DNA replication fork velocity regulates cellular plasticity, and that remodeling of replication signatures leads to changes in cell fate and reprogramming

References:

Tsunetoshi Nakatani et al.