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1: Science. 2006 Feb 17;311(5763):992-6.
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Cdx2 gene expression and trophectoderm lineage specification in mouse embryos.

Deb K, Sivaguru M, Yong HY, Roberts RM.

Department of Animal Sciences, Columbia, MO 65211, USA.

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.

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PMID: 16484492 [PubMed - indexed for MEDLINE]