Morag Robertson

TL;DR: These findings establish a central role for Nanog in the transcription factor hierarchy that defines ES cell identity and confirm that Cytokine dependence, multilineage differentiation, and embryo colonization capacity are fully restored upon transgene excision.

TL;DR: By genetic deletion, it is shown that, although they are prone to differentiate, embryonic stem cells can self-renew indefinitely in the permanent absence of Nanog, and it is surmised that Nanog stabilizes embryonicstem cells in culture by resisting or reversing alternative gene expression states.

TL;DR: The inclusion of a beta-galactosidase reporter gene in the constructs enabled accurate and sensitive detection of cellular sites of transcription and allowed visualization of putative "stem-cell niches" in which sources of elevated expression of differentiation-inhibiting activity were localized to the differentiated cells surrounding colonies of stem cells.

TL;DR: It is concluded that the architecture of the pluripotency gene regulatory network encodes the capacity to generate reversible states of Nanog transcription via a Nanog‐centred autorepressive loop, and cellular variability in self‐renewal efficiency is an emergent property of the stem cell regulatory network.

TL;DR: It is established that ES cell pluripotency can be sustained via a LIF-R/gp130-independent, STAT-3 independent, signaling pathway and Operation of this pathway in vivo could play an important role in the regulation of pluripOTency in the epiblast and account for the viability of lifr and gp130 -/- embryos.