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DNA methylation: a matter of culture

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Pluripotent cells have been derived from the inner cell mass of mouse embryos and also from primordial germ cells. A new study shows that cell lines of both origins exhibit highly similar transcriptomes and surprisingly low DNA methylation levels when maintained in culture conditions that support naive pluripotency. These 2i conditions thus provide a closer approximation of in vivo development and new insights into the regulation of DNA methylation.

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Figure 1: Pluripotent cell types in the mouse embryo and in culture.

Katie Vicari

Figure 2: Maintenance of DNA methylation patterns in somatic and pluripotent cells.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. the Department of Laboratory Medicine, Christoph Bock is at the CeMM Research Center for Molecular Medicine of the Austrian Academy of Sciences, Vienna, Austria, Medical University of Vienna, Vienna, Austria, and the Max Planck Institute for Informatics, Saarbrücken, Germany.,

    Christoph Bock

  2. Department of Biochemistry, Anton Wutz is at the Wellcome Trust–Medical Research Council Stem Cell Institute, University of Cambridge, Cambridge, UK.,

    Anton Wutz

Authors
  1. Christoph Bock
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  2. Anton Wutz
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Correspondence to Christoph Bock.

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The authors declare no competing financial interests.

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Bock, C., Wutz, A. DNA methylation: a matter of culture. Nat Struct Mol Biol 20, 249–251 (2013). https://doi.org/10.1038/nsmb.2531

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