Amplification of a broad transcriptional program by a common factor triggers the meiotic cell cycle in mice
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elife-43738-v1.pdf
Description
Published version
Size
1.36 MB
Format
Adobe PDF
Checksum (MD5)
1a24b147e12ac7706da6b6e3b1ece990
Author(s)
Kojima, Mina
de Rooij, Dirk G.
Page, David C
Date Issued
February 2019
Journal
eLife
Publisher
eLife Sciences Publications, Ltd
Citation
Kojima, Mina, Dirk G. de Rooij, and David C. Page, "Amplification of a broad transcriptional program by a common factor triggers the meiotic cell cycle in mice." eLife 2019 (Feb. 2019): doi 10.7554/ELIFE.43738 ©2019 Author(s)
Version
Final published version
Abstract
The germ line provides the cellular link between generations of multicellular organisms, its cells entering the meiotic cell cycle only once each generation. However, the mechanisms governing this initiation of meiosis remain poorly understood. Here, we examined cells undergoing meiotic initiation in mice, and we found that initiation involves the dramatic upregulation of a transcriptional network of thousands of genes whose expression is not limited to meiosis. This broad gene expression program is directly upregulated by STRA8, encoded by a germ cell-specific gene required for meiotic initiation. STRA8 binds its own promoter and those of thousands of other genes, including meiotic prophase genes, factors mediating DNA replication and the G1-S cell-cycle transition, and genes that promote the lengthy prophase unique to meiosis I. We conclude that, in mice, the robust amplification of this extraordinarily broad transcription program by a common factor triggers initiation of meiosis.
MIT Department
Whitehead Institute for Biomedical Research
Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Biology
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Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International license
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DOI of Published Version
https://doi.org/10.7554/ELIFE.43738
