Work

The first half-century of nuclear transplantation

Year: 2003

Type: article

Abstract: Fifty years after Briggs and King first succeeded in obtaining normal tadpoles from transplanted embryo nuclei in vertebrates, two general principles have emerged from work in amphibia and mammals. One is the conservation of the genome during cell differentiation. A small percentage of adult or differentiated cells have totipotent nuclei, and a much higher percentage of cells committed to one pathway of cell differentiation have multipotent nuclei. The other is the remarkable reprogramming capacity of cell, and especially egg, cytoplasm. The eventual identification of reprogramming molecules and mechanisms could facilitate a route toward cell replacement therapy in humans.

Source: Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences

DOI: 10.1073/pnas.1337135100

Authors: J. B. Gurdon, J. A. Byrne

Institutions: University of Cambridge, The Gurdon Institute

Language: English

Topic: Pluripotent Stem Cells Research

Subfield: Molecular Biology

Field: Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology

Domain: Life Sciences

SDG: Good health and well-being

Open Access status: green

Funders: Wellcome Trust, Directorate for Biological Sciences, Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council