Pluripotency

Prior to its implantation into the uterus, the mammalian embryo stores substantial lipids. Here the authors unveil how lipid storage and morphogenesis of pluripotent stem cells are fundamentally connected during peri-implantation development.

Here the authors show satellite transcripts in mouse embryonic stem cells drive HP1α into droplets in vitro and also control HP1α organisation and association with chromatin in vivo. Depleting the satellite transcripts converts heterochromatin into a less dynamic and more static state and leads to chromosome instability.

Two side-by-side papers report that H3K27me3 deposited by polycomb repressive complex 2 represents an epigenetic barrier that restricts naive human pluripotent cell differentiation into alternative lineages including trophoblasts.