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Eggs made from male mouse stem cells using error-prone culture

A screen of mouse stem cells that exploits their propensity to gain or lose chromosomes in cell culture has been used to convert male XY to female XX cells. Subsequent differentiation generates functional eggs and live offspring.
  1. Jonathan Bayerl

    1. Jonathan Bayerl is in the Department of Obstetrics, Gynecology and Reproductive Sciences, and in the Eli and Edythe Broad Center for Regeneration Medicine and Stem Cell Research, University of California, San Francisco, San Francisco, California 94143, USA.

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  2. Diana J. Laird

    1. Diana J. Laird is in the Department of Obstetrics, Gynecology and Reproductive Sciences, and in the Eli and Edythe Broad Center for Regeneration Medicine and Stem Cell Research, University of California, San Francisco, San Francisco, California 94143, USA.

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The ability of pluripotent stem cells to replenish themselves and to differentiate into any cell type of the body presents opportunities for studying diseases in culture and for producing personalized cells for therapy. But growing pluripotent stem cells in vitro comes with perils, too, because extended periods of culture can lead to abnormalities such as aneuploidy, in which chromosomes are duplicated or lost altogether1. Writing in Nature, Murakami et al.2 report that this tendency for aneuploidy can be exploited to convert a type of pluripotent cell — mouse embryonic stem cells (mESCs) — from male to female. The authors guide the sex-converted cells to form eggs that can be fertilized to yield offspring, marking a milestone in reproductive biology.

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Nature 615, 805-807 (2023)

doi: https://doi.org/10.1038/d41586-023-00755-1

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Competing Interests

The authors declare no competing interests.

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