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Honey bee Royalactin unlocks conserved pluripotency pathway in mammals.

Derrick C WanStefanie L MorganAndrew L SpencleyNatasha MarianoErin Y ChangGautam ShankarYunhai LuoTed H LiDana HuhStar K HuynhJasmine M GarciaCole M DoveyJennifer LumbLing LiuKatharine V BrownAbel BermudezRichard LuongHong ZengVictoria L MascettiSharon J PitteriJordon WangHua TuMarco QuartaVittorio SebastianoRoel NusseThomas A RandoJan E CaretteJ Fernando BazanKevin C Wang
Published in: Nature communications (2018)
Royal jelly is the queen-maker for the honey bee Apis mellifera, and has cross-species effects on longevity, fertility, and regeneration in mammals. Despite this knowledge, how royal jelly or its components exert their myriad effects has remained poorly understood. Using mouse embryonic stem cells as a platform, here we report that through its major protein component Royalactin, royal jelly can maintain pluripotency by activating a ground-state pluripotency-like gene network. We further identify Regina, a mammalian structural analog of Royalactin that also induces a naive-like state in mouse embryonic stem cells. This reveals an important innate program for stem cell self-renewal with broad implications in understanding the molecular regulation of stem cell fate across species.
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