Abstract
The energetically costly mammalian investment in gestation and lactation requires plentiful nutritional sources and thus links the environmental conditions to reproductive success. Flexibility in adjusting developmental timing enhances chances of survival in adverse conditions. Over 130 mammalian species can reversibly pause early embryonic development by switching to a near dormant state that can be sustained for months, a phenomenon called embryonic diapause. Lineage-specific cells are retained during diapause, and they proliferate and differentiate upon activation. Studying diapause thus reveals principles of pluripotency and dormancy and is not only relevant for development, but also for regeneration and cancer. In this review, we focus on the molecular regulation of diapause in early mammalian embryos and relate it to maintenance of potency in stem cells in vitro. Diapause is established and maintained by active rewiring of the embryonic metabolome, epigenome, and gene expression in communication with maternal tissues. Herein, we particularly discuss factors required at distinct stages of diapause to induce, maintain, and terminate dormancy.
Highlights
Five momentous periods characterize the storyline of most animal life: fertilization, embryonic development, juvenility, sexual maturation, and reproduction
Some key factors enabling generation of pluripotent stem cells are only required in diapause and not in proliferative blastocysts, suggesting that pluripotency maintenance and establishment may be regulated by nonoverlapping mechanisms
The ability of stem cells to tolerate and adjust to various stressors in diapause could signify their capacity to resist to other stressors such as bacterial infections in C. elegans that the embryo might encounter during development (Ren and Ambros, 2015)
Summary
Over 130 mammalian species can reversibly pause early embryonic development by switching to a near dormant state that can be sustained for months, a phenomenon called embryonic diapause. Lineage-specific cells are retained during diapause, and they proliferate and differentiate upon activation. Studying diapause reveals principles of pluripotency and dormancy and is relevant for development, and for regeneration and cancer. We focus on the molecular regulation of diapause in early mammalian embryos and relate it to maintenance of potency in stem cells in vitro. Diapause is established and maintained by active rewiring of the embryonic metabolome, epigenome, and gene expression in communication with maternal tissues. We discuss factors required at distinct stages of diapause to induce, maintain, and terminate dormancy
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