Taube nuss is a novel gene essential for the survival of pluripotent cells of early mouse embryos

Abstract

The cells of the inner cell mass constitute the pluripotent cell population of the early embryo. They have the potential to form all of the tissues of the embryo proper and some extra-embryonic tissues. They can be considered a transient stem cell population for the whole of the embryo, and stem cells maintaining the same capacity can be isolated from these cells. We have isolated, characterised and mutated a novel gene, taube nuss (Tbn), that is essential for the survival of this important cell population. The taube nuss protein sequence (TBN) was highly conserved between human, mouse, Xenopus laevis, Drosophila melanogaster, Caenorhabditis elegans and Arabidopsis thaliana, particularly in ..