Further Development 5.3: How Does E-Cadherin Influence Blastocyst Cell Fates?

Research has shown that the presence of E-cadherin activates the Hippo pathway, but only in the ICM. As discussed in Chapter 4, activated Hippo signaling represses the Yap-Taz-Tead transcriptional complex, and in the ICM, the result is the maintenance of pluripotent ICM development through Oct4. In the outer cells, the apically positioned partitioning proteins inhibit Hippo signaling, leading to an active Yap-Taz-Tead transcriptional complex, an upregulation of cdx2 , and the trophectoderm fate (Figure 5.9B ; Hirate et al. 2013). Thus, differential localization of specific proteins within the cell can lead to the activation of different gene regulatory networks within neighboring cells and the acquisition of different cell fates.

Literature Cited

Hirate, Y. and 14 others. 2013. Polarity-dependent distribution of angiomotin localizes Hippo signaling in preimplantation embryos. Curr. Biol. 23: 1181–1194.
PubMed Link

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