Gene regulatory networks underlying cellular pluripotency are controlled by a core circuitry of transcription factors in mammals, including POU5F1. However, the evolutionary origin and transformation of pluripotency-related transcriptional networks have not been elucidated in deuterostomes.
the co-option of the PRDM14-CBFA2T complex from motor neurons into pluripotent cells may have maintained the transcriptional network for pluripotency during vertebrate evolution.
Germ cell specification in multicellular organisms is subdivided into two modes: preformation and epigenesis
In different species, germ cell specification can occur via either of two modes.
During preformation, cytoplasmic germ cell determinants, known as the germ plasm, are asymmetrically localised in oocytes and predetermine the cellular competency for germ cell formation, e.g. in flies, worms, teleost fishes and frogs.
In contrast, germ cells are segregated from pluripotent cells, which can differentiate into both germ cells and somatic cells, by receiving induction signals from surrounding tissues in epigenesis, e.g. in salamanders, mice and humans
The phylogenetic distribution of preformation and epigenesis in metazoans implies that epigenesis is an ancestral mode of germ cell formation and that preformation evolved repeatedly and independently
we consider it to be an essential challenge to uncover the de novo mechanisms stabilising pluripotency transcriptional networks during the emergence of mammals.
Common Design 