POU5F1 (OCT4), SOX2, NANOG activate genes related to proliferation

POU5F1 (OCT4), SOX2, NANOG activate genes related to proliferation POU5F1 (OCT4), SOX2, and NANOG bind elements in the promoters of target genes. The target genes of each transcription factor overlap extensively: POU5F1, SOX2, and NANOG co-occupy at least 353 genes (Boyer et al. 2005). About half of POU5F1 targets also bind SOX2 and about 90% of these also bind NANOG (Boyer et al. 2005). Upon binding the transcription factors activate expression of one subset of target genes and repress another subset (Kim et al. 2006, Matoba et al. 2006, Player et al. 2006, Babaie et al. 2007). The targets listed in this module are those that have been described as composing activated genes in the core transcriptional network of pluripotent stem cells (Assou et al. 2007, Chavez et al. 2009, Jung et al. 2010). Inferences from mouse to human have been made with caution because of significant differences between the two species (Ginis et al. 2004).