Cell Stem Cell
Volume 13, Issue 1, 3 July 2013, Pages 23-29
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Brief Report
Single-Cell Analysis Reveals that Expression of Nanog Is Biallelic and Equally Variable as that of Other Pluripotency Factors in Mouse ESCs

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.stem.2013.04.019Get rights and content
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Highlights

  • Single-cell analysis reveals that Nanog is biallelically expressed in mESCs

  • Variation in Nanog expression is similar to that of other pluripotency markers

  • Heterozygous loss-of-function knockin reporters do not reflect Nanog expression

  • Genetic background can influence the range of Nanog expression

Summary

The homeodomain transcription factor Nanog is a central part of the core pluripotency transcriptional network and plays a critical role in embryonic stem cell (ESC) self-renewal. Several reports have suggested that Nanog expression is allelically regulated and that transient downregulation of Nanog in a subset of pluripotent cells predisposes them toward differentiation. Using single-cell gene expression analyses combined with different reporters for the two alleles of Nanog, we show that Nanog is biallelically expressed in ESCs independently of culture condition. We also show that the overall variation in endogenous Nanog expression in ESCs is very similar to that of several other pluripotency markers. Our analysis suggests that reporter-based studies of gene expression in pluripotent cells can be significantly influenced by the gene-targeting strategy and genetic background employed.

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