Skip to main content

Thank you for visiting nature.com. You are using a browser version with limited support for CSS. To obtain the best experience, we recommend you use a more up to date browser (or turn off compatibility mode in Internet Explorer). In the meantime, to ensure continued support, we are displaying the site without styles and JavaScript.

  • NEWS AND VIEWS

Cell identity reprogrammed

The discovery that cell differentiation can be reversed challenged theories of how cell identity is determined, laying the foundations for modern methods of reprogramming cell identity and promising new regenerative therapies.
  1. Samantha A. Morris

    1. Samantha A. Morris is in the Departments of Developmental Biology and of Genetics, and in the Center of Regenerative Medicine, Washington University School of Medicine in St Louis, St Louis, Missouri 63110, USA.

    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed  Google Scholar

All cells of an organism derive from a single cell. As development progresses, cells become increasingly specialized to perform defined functions, a commitment that is accompanied by a restriction in the range of potential fates of those cells. In the late nineteenth century, a predominant thought was that, when they differentiate, cells retain only those pieces of heritable information required to maintain cell-type identity and function1. This led to the theory that differentiation is an irreversible process (Fig. 1a). John Gurdon’s seminal paper in Nature on nuclear reprogramming of cell identity, with Tom Elsdale and Michael Fischberg2, provided a remarkable challenge to this dogma, and formed the basis for today’s cell-reprogramming field.

Access options

Rent or buy this article

Prices vary by article type

from$1.95

to$39.95

Learn more

Prices may be subject to local taxes which are calculated during checkout

Nature 575, 44-45 (2019)

doi: https://doi.org/10.1038/d41586-019-02834-8

References

  1. Weismann, A. The Germ-Plasm: A Theory of Heredity (transl. Parker, W. N. & Ronnfeldt, H.) (Scott, 1893).

    Google Scholar 

  2. Gurdon, J. B., Elsdale, T. R. & Fischberg, M. Nature 182, 64–65 (1958).

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  3. Briggs, R. & King, T. J. Proc. Natl Acad. Sci. USA 38, 455–463 (1952).

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  4. DiBerardino, M. A. & Hoffner, N. J. Results Probl. Cell Differ. 11, 53–64 (1980).

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  5. King, T. J. & Briggs, R. Proc. Natl Acad. Sci. USA 41, 321–325 (1955).

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  6. Gurdon, J. B. J. Embryol. Exp. Morphol. 10, 622–640 (1962).

    Google Scholar 

  7. Campbell, K. H., McWhir, J., Ritchie, W. A. & Wilmut, I. Nature 380, 64–66 (1996).

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  8. Wakayama, T., Perry, A. C., Zuccotti, M., Johnson, K. R. & Yanagimachi, R. Nature 394, 369–374 (1998).

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  9. Hochedlinger, K. & Jaenisch, R. Nature 415, 1035–1038 (2002).

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  10. Blau, H. M., Chiu, C. P. & Webster, C. Cell 32, 1171–1180 (1983).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  11. Davis, R. L., Weintraub, H. & Lassar, A. B. Cell 51, 987–1000 (1987).

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  12. Gurdon, J. B. Annu. Rev. Cell Dev. Biol. 22, 1–22 (2006).

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  13. Takahashi, K. & Yamanaka, S. Cell 126, 663–676 (2006).

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  14. Cohen, D. E. & Melton, D. Nature Rev. Genet. 12, 243–252 (2011).

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  15. Morris, S. A. & Daley, G. Q. Cell Res. 23, 33–48 (2013).

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  16. Vierbuchen, T. & Wernig, M. Nature Biotechnol. 29, 892–907 (2011).

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  17. Passier, R., Orlova, V. & Mummery, C. Cell Stem Cell 18, 309–321 (2016).

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  18. Mandai, M. et al. N. Engl. J. Med. 376, 1038–1046 (2017).

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

Download references

Subjects

Latest on:

Nature Careers

Jobs

Nature Briefing

Sign up for the Nature Briefing newsletter — what matters in science, free to your inbox daily.

Get the most important science stories of the day, free in your inbox. Sign up for Nature Briefing

Search

Advanced search

Quick links