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An Amendment to this paper has been published and can be accessed via a link at the top of the paper.

During post-implantation development of the mouse embryo, descendants of the inner cell mass in the early epiblast transit from the naive to primed pluripotent state 1 . Concurrently, germ layers are formed and cell lineages are specified, leading to the establishment of the blueprint for embryogenesis. Fate-mapping and lineage-analysis studies have revealed that cells in different regions of the germ layers acquire location-specific cell fates during gastrulation 2-5 . The regionalization of cell fates preceding the formation of the basic body plan-the mechanisms of which are instrumental for understanding embryonic programming and stem-cell-based translational study-is conserved in vertebrate embryos 6-8 . However, a genome-wide molecular annotation of lineage segregation and tissue architecture of the post-implantation embryo has yet to be undertaken. Here we report a spatially resolved transcriptome of cell populations at defined positions in the germ layers during development from pre- to late-gastrulation stages. This spatiotemporal transcriptome provides high-resolution digitized in situ gene-expression profiles, reveals the molecular genealogy of tissue lineages and defines the continuum of pluripotency states in time and space. The transcriptome further identifies the networks of molecular determinants that drive lineage specification and tissue patterning, supports a role of Hippo-Yap signalling in germ-layer development and reveals the contribution of visceral endoderm to the endoderm in the early mouse embryo.

Mouse embryonic stem cells derived from the epiblast contribute to the somatic lineages and the germline but are excluded from the extra-embryonic tissues that are derived from the trophectoderm and the primitive endoderm upon reintroduction to the blastocyst. Here we report that cultures of expanded potential stem cells can be established from individual eight-cell blastomeres, and by direct conversion of mouse embryonic stem cells and induced pluripotent stem cells. Remarkably, a single expanded potential stem cell can contribute both to the embryo proper and to the trophectoderm lineages in a chimaera assay. Bona fide trophoblast stem cell lines and extra-embryonic endoderm stem cells can be directly derived from expanded potential stem cells in vitro. Molecular analyses of the epigenome and single-cell transcriptome reveal enrichment for blastomere-specific signature and a dynamic DNA methylome in expanded potential stem cells. The generation of mouse expanded potential stem cells highlights the feasibility of establishing expanded potential stem cells for other mammalian species.