Totipotency, development, and chromatin [Essays]

Maria-Elena Torres-Padilla Institute of Epigenetics and Stem Cells (IES), Helmholtz Zentrum München, D-81377 München, Germany; Faculty of Biology, Ludwig-Maximilians Universität, D-81377 München, Germany Corresponding author: torres-padillahelmholtz-muenchen.de

It has taken me a long time to figure out how to start writing this piece. I want to draw attention to the words in the title, give a personal perspective, and remain scientifically focused. This is probably too ambitious, and it is unlikely that I will achieve it.

Our research is embedded fully in the three words I chose for the title, which also reflect what drives us; that is, to reach a deeper understanding of totipotency, development, and chromatin, as well as, of course, the underlying processes and implications. The time window that encompasses the earliest developmental stages at fertilization up until the emergence of the first lineages in the mammalian embryo is fascinating for many reasons.

Primarily, it is because there is an intense period of chromatin remodeling during the first few cell divisions after fertilization that must occur hand in hand with major changes in cellular plasticity, involving regulation of the transcriptome and epigenome that also change with each individual cell division. Setting up the developmental program after fertilization also requires the remodeling of the chromatin from the gametes, which in mammals come with very different flavors: While the sperm DNA is mostly packed …

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