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Chemical reprogramming of Caenorhabditis elegans germ cell fate

Nature Chemical Biology volume 6, pages 102–104 (2010)Cite this article

Abstract

Small molecules can control cell fate in vivo and may allow directed induction of desired cell types, providing an attractive alternative to transplant-based approaches in regenerative medicine. We have chemically induced functional oocytes in Caenorhabditis elegans adults that otherwise produced only sperm. These findings suggest that chemical approaches to therapeutic cell reprogramming may be feasible and provide a powerful platform for analyzing molecular mechanisms of in vivo cell reprogramming.

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Figure 1: Small molecule–mediated reprogramming of sperm/oocyte fate.
Figure 2: Small molecule–induced oocytes are functional.

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Acknowledgements

We thank S. Ward (University of Arizona) and B. Grant (Rutgers University) for providing reagents. We are grateful to L. Vanderploeg, A. Steinberg and A. Helsley-Marchbanks for help preparing the figures and manuscript. We thank the Kimble lab members for helpful discussions. This work was supported by US National Institutes of Health grant RO1 GM069454. J.K. is an investigator with the Howard Hughes Medical Institute.

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Author notes

  1. Clinton T Morgan and Myon-Hee Lee: These authors contributed equally to this work.

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Medical Scientist Training Program, University of Wisconsin-Madison, Madison, Wisconsin, USA

    Clinton T Morgan & Judith Kimble

  2. Integrated Program in Biochemistry, University of Wisconsin-Madison, Madison, Wisconsin, USA

    Clinton T Morgan & Judith Kimble

  3. Howard Hughes Medical Institute, University of Wisconsin-Madison, Madison, Wisconsin, USA

    Myon-Hee Lee & Judith Kimble

  4. Department of Biochemistry, University of Wisconsin-Madison, Madison, Wisconsin, USA

    Judith Kimble

Authors
  1. Clinton T Morgan
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  2. Myon-Hee Lee
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  3. Judith Kimble
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Contributions

C.T.M. and M.-H.L. performed the experiments. C.T.M., M.-H.L. and J.K. analyzed the results. C.T.M. and J.K. wrote the manuscript.

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Judith Kimble.

Supplementary information

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Supplementary Methods, Supplementary Figures 1–4 and Supplementary Table 1 (PDF 5811 kb)

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Morgan, C., Lee, MH. & Kimble, J. Chemical reprogramming of Caenorhabditis elegans germ cell fate. Nat Chem Biol 6, 102–104 (2010). https://doi.org/10.1038/nchembio.282

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