Molecular Info®

Molecular Info® Copy Right © 2001 Institute of Molecular Development LLC

Epigenetic Reprogramming in Mammalian Development Wolf Reik, Wendy Dean, Jörn Walter The Science, August 2001, 293: 1089 - 1093. Genomic methylation patterns in somatic differentiated cells are generally stable and heritable. However, in mammals there are at least two developmental periods--in germ cells and in preimplantation embryos--in which methylation patterns are reprogrammed genome wide, generating cells with a broad developmental potential. Epigenetic reprogramming in germ cells is critical for imprinting; reprogramming in early embryos also affects imprinting. Reprogramming is likely to have a crucial role in establishing nuclear totipotency in normal development and in cloned animals, and in the erasure of acquired epigenetic information.