| Early embryonic development is partly driven by a network of regulators that is responsible for the transcriptional remodelling that occurs during transition from the single-cell stage to differentiated cells in the blastocyst and adult cell lineages. Understanding how this network is constructed is a key step towards understanding early development and to fulfilling the promise of embryonal stem cell therapy. To reach this goal I intend to characterize in detail 100 regulators that are predominantly expressed in mouse embryonal stem (ES) cells. I plan to first identify the specific DNA sequence motifs bound by these factors at the positions in the genome where they regulate gene expression. Using computational techniques, these motifs will then be integrated with gene expression data from the early stages of embryonic development, to identify which specific expression changes are controlled by the individual ES cell specific transcription factors. From this analysis I will also gain insight into how different regulators coordinate their actions together. This project is expected to shed light on the role of several new ES cell transcription factors. Strong selective pressures in early embryonic development mean that the results will easily translate to human embryology and stem cell research. |
