MappingNANOGto chromosome 5 in swine.

The article discusses Nanog mapping in chromosome 5 in swine. Homeoprotein Nanog is a transcription factor expressed specifically in pluripotent cells, and it can maintain self-renewal of embryonic stem (ES) cells even when they lack LIF/Stat 3. The Nanog-deficient ES cells cannot self-renew and differentiate into extraembryonic endoderm lineage, inner cell mass cells that lack Nanog failed to produce epiblast and only generated parietal endoderm-like cells. Thus, Nanog is an important factor for maintaining the pluripotency of pluripotent cells. Authors conclude that they had identified the pig orthologue of the human Nanog gene on the basis of DNA sequence similarity and homologous map locations in human and pig.