Laboratory for Mammalian Germ Cell Biology
Research Areas
| Research in our laboratory is geared to elucidating the developmental bases of germline function at the molecular and systems levels from the very earliest stages of germline development. Specifically, our subjects of interest are the molecular mechanisms involved in the formation of mouse primordial germ cells (PGCs), the cellular progenitors of sperm and oocytes, the genome-wide epigenetic reprogramming that takes place immediately following PGC establishment, the development and application of technologies to enable the analysis of transcriptional regulatory networks at the single-cell level, the establishment of a culture system that faithfully recapitulates the development of germ cells from embryonic stem cells, and the analysis of the function of oocyte nucleolus. |  Team Leader Mitinori SAITOU (M.D., Ph.D.)  |
Research Subjects
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List of Selected Publications
| (1) | Ohinata, Y., Sano, M., Shigeta, M., Yamanaka, K., and Saitou, M.: "A comprehensive, non-invasive visualization of primordial germ cell development in mice by the Blimp1-mVenus and stella-ECFP double transgenic reporter." Reproduction, 136, 503-514, (2008) |
| (2) | Yamaji, M., Seki, Y., Kurimoto, K., Yabuta, Y., Yuasa, M., Shigeta, M., Yamanaka, K., Ohinata, Y., and Saitou, M.: "Critical function of Prdm14 for the establishment of the germ cell lineage in mice." Nature Genetics, 40, 1016-1022, (2008) |
| (3) | Kurimoto, K., Yabuta, Y., Ohinata, Y., Shigeta, M., Yamanaka, K., and Saitou, M.: "Complex genome-wide transcription dynamics orchestrated by Blimp1 for the specification of the germ cell lineage in mice." Genes & Development, 22, 1617-1635, (2008) |
| (4) | Ogushi, S., Palmieri, C., Fulka, H., Saitou, M., Miyano, T., and Fulka Jr, J.: "Maternal nucleolus is essential for early embryonic development in mammals." Science, 319, 613-616, (2008) |
| (5) | Seki, Y., Yamaji, M., Yabuta, Y., Sano, M., Shigeta, M., Matsui, Y., Saga, Y., Tachibana, M., Shinkai, Y., and Saitou, M.: "Cellular dynamics associated with the genome-wide epigenetic reprogramming in migrating primordial germ cells in mice." Development, 134, 2627-2638, (2007) |
| (6) | Kurimoto, K., Yabuta, Y., Ohinata, Y., and Saitou, M.: "Global single-cell cDNA amplification to provide a template for representative high-density oligonucleotide microarray analysis." Nature Protocols, 2, 739-752, (2007) |
| (7) | Yabuta, Y., Kurimoto, K., Ohinata, Y., Seki, Y., and Saitou, M.: "Gene expression dynamics during germline specification in mice identified by quantitative single-cell gene expression profiling." Biol. Reprod., 75, 705-716, (2006) |
| (8) | Kurimoto, K., Yabuta, Y., Ohinata, Y., Ono, Y., Uno, D. K., Yamada, R. G., Ueda, H. R., and Saitou, M.: "An improved single-cell cDNA amplification method for efficient high-density oligonucleotide microarray analysis." Nuc. Acids Res., 34, e42, (2006) |
| (9) | Ohinata, Y., Payer, B., O'Carroll, D., Ancelin, K., Ono, Y ., Sano, M., Barton, S. C., Obukhanych, T., Nussenzweig, M., Tarakhovsky, A., Saitou, M., and Surani, M. A.: "Blimp1 is a critical determinant of the germ cell lineage in mice." Nature, Vol. 436, No.7048, 207-213, (2005). Co-correspondence. |
| (10) | Saitou, M., Barton, S.C., and Surani, M.A.: "A molecular programme for the specification of germ cell fate in mice." Nature, Vol.418, No.6895, 293-300 (2002). |