Researchers in the United Kingdom have discovered new genes that play an important role in the development of stem cells. Scientists from the Wellcome Genome Campus found new genes that operate within stem cell regulatory networks and newly formed groups of cells.

The discovery will help researchers understand stem cell pluripotency. Pluripotency is a stem cell’s ability to differentiate (divide) into a number of different types of cells. It is a very powerful mechanism which scientists hope to harness and use in a number of ground-breaking medical treatments.

Before differentiating into another cell, stem cells exist in a “ground” state. What triggers them to differentiate into a particular type of cell is still the subject of research. Scientists have realised that the process of differentiation is related to the order which genes inside the cell are expressed (turned on or off). Understanding how gene expression works will also give researchers a greater understanding of the very fundamentals of the human body. 

Scientists from the Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute and European Bioinformatics Institute (EMBL-EBI examined the expression of thousands of genes in hundreds of mouse Embryonic Stem Cells. They found certain patterns within the expression of genes in specific cell populations.

Researchers used single-cell RNA sequencing to examine how genes were expressing in each cellular group. One of the researchers, Ola Kolodziejczk, explains: “You can take a kind of snapshot of this very dynamic process of gene expression, and infer a lot of information from it”. The snapshot can be used to find connections between cellular groups and gene expressions.

During their research, the scientists found a rare subpopulation of cells that express a couple of marker genes that can also be found in “totipotent” cells. Totipotent cells occur at a very early stage in the development of a foetus and are capable of differentiating into any kind of cell. This is an important discovery which will help researchers learn more about the development of stem cells.

Source: New Genes Discovered that Regulate Development of Stem Cells

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