Embryonic stem cell (ESC) self-renewal efficiency is determined by the level of Nanog expression. However, the mechanisms by which Nanog functions remain unclear, and in particular, direct Nanog target genes are uncharacterized. Here we investigate ESCs expressing different Nanog levels and Nanog(-/-) cells with distinct functionally inducible Nanog proteins to identify Nanog-responsive genes. ...

Nanog is a master pluripotency factor of embryonic stem cells (ESCs). Stable expression of Nanog is essential to maintain the stemness of ESCs. However, Nanog is a short-lived protein and quickly degraded by the ubiquitin-dependent proteasome system. Here we report that the deubiquitinase USP21 interacts with, deubiquitinates and stabilizes Nanog, and therefore maintains the protein level of Na...

Pluripotency is a developmental ground state that can be recreated by direct reprogramming. Establishment of pluripotency is crucially dependent on the homeodomain-containing transcription factor Nanog. Compared with other pluripotency-associated genes, however, Nanog shows relatively low sequence conservation. Here, we investigated whether Nanog orthologs have the capacity to orchestrate estab...

BACKGROUND Pluripotency and self-renewal of human embryonic stem cells (hESCs) is mediated by a complex interplay between extra- and intracellular signaling pathways, which regulate the expression of pluripotency-specific transcription factors. The homeodomain transcription factor NANOG plays a central role in maintaining hESC pluripotency, but the precise role and regulation of NANOG are not w...

The core pluripotency transcription factor NANOG is critical for embryonic stem cell (ESC) self-renewal and somatic cell reprogramming. Although NANOG is phosphorylated at multiple residues, the role of NANOG phosphorylation in ESC self-renewal is incompletely understood, and no information exists regarding its functions during reprogramming. Here we report our findings that NANOG phosphorylati...

The transcription factors (TFs) Nanog and Esrrb play important roles in embryonic stem cells (ESCs) and during primordial germ-cell (PGC) development. Esrrb is a positively regulated direct target of NANOG in ESCs that can substitute qualitatively for Nanog function in ESCs. Whether this functional substitution extends to the germline is unknown. Here, we show that germline deletion of Nanog re...

Background Endometriosis is a gynecological disease defined as the presence of endometrial tissue outside the uterine cavity, which caused by various factors. Recent evidences support the presence of endometrial stem cells and their possible involvement in endometriosis. Related studies mainly focus on stemness-related genes, and pluripotency markers may play a role in the etiology of endometri...

NANOG, OCT4 and SOX2 form the core network of transcription factors supporting embryonic stem (ES) cell self-renewal. While OCT4 and SOX2 expression is relatively uniform, ES cells fluctuate between states of high NANOG expression possessing high self-renewal efficiency, and low NANOG expression exhibiting increased differentiation propensity. NANOG, OCT4 and SOX2 are currently considered to ac...