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ReportsCdx2 Gene Expression and Trophectoderm Lineage Specification in Mouse Embryos
Controversy exists as to whether individual blastomeres from two-cell-stage mouse embryos have identical developmental properties and fate. We show that the transcription factor Cdx2 is expressed in the nuclei of cells derived from the late-dividing but not the first-dividing blastomere of two-cell embryos and, by lineage tracing and RNA interference knock-down experiments, that this lagging cell is the precursor of trophectoderm. Cdx2 mRNA is localized toward the vegetal pole of oocytes, reorients after fertilization, and becomes concentrated in the late-dividing, two-cell-stage blastomere. The asymmetrical distribution of Cdx2 gene products in the oocyte and embryo defines the lineage to trophectoderm.
1 Department of Animal Sciences, Columbia, MO 65211, USA.
2 Department of Biological Sciences, Columbia, MO 65211, USA. 3 Department of Biochemistry, University of Missouri, Columbia, MO 65211, USA. * To whom correspondence should be addressed. E-mail: robertsrm{at}missouri.edu
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Science. ISSN 0036-8075 (print), 1095-9203 (online)