Markov et al. published in PNAS
Markov PNAS 2021 Fig 5
"AP-1 is a temporally regulated dual gatekeeper of reprogramming to pluripotency" was published in June in PNAS. The manuscript is a collaborative effort between the labs of Helen M. Blau and Anshul Kundaje, both at Stanford. The researchers shed light on one of the major barriers to human somatic cell reprogramming, somatic cell transcription factors. Employing high dimensional sequencing and bioinformatics metodologies, the authors identify the transcription factor AP-1 as critical for reprogramming. Specifically, the authors show that human fibroblasts can be efficiently reprogrammed to induced pluripotent stem cells by transduction with vectors expressing SOX2, KLF4, and inducible dnAP-1, demonstrating that dnAP-1 can substitute for exogenous human OCT4. Their findings highlight AP-1 as a previously unrecognized potent dual gatekeeper of the somatic cell state.