Biomedical Engineering and Bioengineering Commons^™

Expression And Differentiation Between Oct4a And Its Pseudogenes In Human Escs And Differentiated Adult Somatic Cells., Sakthikumar Ambady, Mojca Jez, Olga Kashpur, Alexandra Grella, Christopher Malcuit, Lucy Vilner, Primoz Rozman, Tanja Dominko

Sakthikumar Ambady

The POU5F1 gene codes for the OCT4 transcription factor, which is one of the key regulators of pluripotency. Its transcription, alternative splicing, and alternative translation leading to the synthesis of the active, nuclear localized OCT4A has been described in detail. Much less, however, is known about actively transcribed OCT4 pseudogenes, several of which display high homology to OCT4A and can be expressed and translated into proteins. Using RT-PCR followed by pseudogene-specific restriction digestion, cloning, and sequencing we discriminate between OCT4A and transcripts for pseudogenes 1, 3 and 4. We show that expression of OCT4 and its pseudogenes follows a developmentally-regulated …