Blimp1 is a critical
determinant of the germ cell lineage in mice
Ohinata Y, Payer B, O'Carroll D, Ancelin K, Ono Y, Sano M, Barton S C,
Obukhanych T, Nussenzweig M, Tarakhovsky A, Saitou M and Surani M A
Nature 436(7048):207-13 (2005)
SUMMARY
Germ cell fate in mice is induced in pluripotent epiblast cells in response
to signals from extraembryonic tissues. The specification of approximately
40 founder primordial germ cells and their segregation from somatic neighbours
are important events in early development. We have proposed that a critical
event during this specification includes repression of a somatic programme
that is adopted by neighbouring cells. Here we show that Blimp1 (also
known as Prdm1), a known transcriptional repressor, has a critical role
in the foundation of the mouse germ cell lineage, as its disruption causes
a block early in the process of primordial germ cell formation. Blimp1-deficient
mutant embryos form a tight cluster of about 20 primordial germ cell-like
cells, which fail to show the characteristic migration, proliferation
and consistent repression of homeobox genes that normally accompany specification
of primordial germ cells. Furthermore, our genetic lineage-tracing experiments
indicate that the Blimp1-positive cells originating from the proximal
posterior epiblast cells are indeed the lineage-restricted primordial
germ cell precursors.
LINK
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi?cmd=Retrieve&db=PubMed&dopt=Citation&list_uids=15937476