1. Computational and Systems Biology
  2. Developmental Biology

Efficient differentiation of human primordial germ cells through geometric control reveals a key role for Nodal signaling

  1. Kyoung Jo
  2. Seth Teague
  3. Bohan Chen
  4. Hina Aftab Khan
  5. Emily Freeburne
  6. Hunter Li
  7. Bolin Li
  8. Ran Ran
  9. Jason R Spence
  10. Idse Heemskerk  Is a corresponding author
  1. University of Michigan Medical School, United States
https://doi.org/10.7554/eLife.72811
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Cite this article
  1. Kyoung Jo
  2. Seth Teague
  3. Bohan Chen
  4. Hina Aftab Khan
  5. Emily Freeburne
  6. Hunter Li
  7. Bolin Li
  8. Ran Ran
  9. Jason R Spence
  10. Idse Heemskerk
(2022)
Efficient differentiation of human primordial germ cells through geometric control reveals a key role for Nodal signaling
eLife 11:e72811.
https://doi.org/10.7554/eLife.72811
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Abstract

Human primordial germ cells (hPGCs) form around the time of implantation and are the precursors of eggs and sperm. Many aspects of hPGC specification remain poorly understood because of the inaccessibility of the early postimplantation human embryo for study. Here we show that micropatterned human pluripotent stem cells (hPSCs) treated with BMP4 give rise to hPGC-like cells (hPGCLC) and use these as a quantitatively reproducible and simple in vitro model to interrogate this important developmental event. We characterize micropatterned hPSCs up to 96h and show that hPGCLC populations are stable and continue to mature. By perturbing signaling during hPGCLC differentiation, we identify a previously unappreciated role for Nodal signaling and find that the relative timing and duration of BMP and Nodal signaling are critical parameters controlling the number of hPGCLCs. We formulate a mathematical model for a network of cross-repressive fates driven by Nodal and BMP signaling which predicts the measured fate patterns after signaling perturbations. Finally, we show that hPSC colony size dictates the efficiency of hPGCLC specification, which led us to dramatically improve the efficiency of hPGCLC differentiation.

Data availability

All code for data analysis and model simulations is available on github.com/idse/PGCsscRNA-seq data have been deposited in GEO under accession number GSE182057.

The following data sets were generated
The following previously published data sets were used

Article and author information

Author details

  1. Kyoung Jo

    Department of Cell and Developmental Biology, University of Michigan Medical School, Ann Arbor, United States
    Competing interests
    The authors declare that no competing interests exist.

  2. Seth Teague

    Department of Biomedical Engineering, University of Michigan Medical School, Ann Arbor, United States
    Competing interests
    The authors declare that no competing interests exist.

  3. Bohan Chen

    Department of Cell and Developmental Biology, University of Michigan Medical School, Ann Arbor, United States
    Competing interests
    The authors declare that no competing interests exist.
    ORCID icon "This ORCID iD identifies the author of this article:" 0000-0002-9781-2982

  4. Hina Aftab Khan

    Department of Cell and Developmental Biology, University of Michigan Medical School, Ann Arbor, United States
    Competing interests
    The authors declare that no competing interests exist.

  5. Emily Freeburne

    Department of Cell and Developmental Biology, University of Michigan Medical School, Ann Arbor, United States
    Competing interests
    The authors declare that no competing interests exist.
    ORCID icon "This ORCID iD identifies the author of this article:" 0000-0003-0344-577X

  6. Hunter Li

    Department of Cell and Developmental Biology, University of Michigan Medical School, Ann Arbor, United States
    Competing interests
    The authors declare that no competing interests exist.

  7. Bolin Li

    Department of Cell and Developmental Biology, University of Michigan Medical School, Ann Arbor, United States
    Competing interests
    The authors declare that no competing interests exist.

  8. Ran Ran

    Department of Cell and Developmental Biology, University of Michigan Medical School, Ann Arbor, United States
    Competing interests
    The authors declare that no competing interests exist.

  9. Jason R Spence

    Department of Cell and Developmental Biology, University of Michigan Medical School, Ann Arbor, United States
    Competing interests
    The authors declare that no competing interests exist.
    ORCID icon "This ORCID iD identifies the author of this article:" 0000-0001-7869-3992

  10. Idse Heemskerk

    Department of Cell and Developmental Biology, University of Michigan Medical School, Ann Arbor, United States
    For correspondence
    iheemske@umich.edu
    Competing interests
    The authors declare that no competing interests exist.
    ORCID icon "This ORCID iD identifies the author of this article:" 0000-0002-8861-7712

Funding

Medical School, University of Michigan (startup)

  • Kyoung Jo
  • Seth Teague
  • Bohan Chen
  • Hina Aftab Khan
  • Emily Freeburne
  • Hunter Li
  • Bolin Li
  • Ran Ran
  • Idse Heemskerk

ETH Zürich Foundation (Branco Weiss Fellowship)

  • Hina Aftab Khan
  • Idse Heemskerk

National Institute of General Medical Sciences (R35 GM138346)

  • Seth Teague
  • Bohan Chen

Medical School, University of Michigan (Pioneer Fellowship)

  • Kyoung Jo

The funders had no role in study design, data collection and interpretation, or the decision to submit the work for publication.

Copyright

© 2022, Jo et al.

This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License permitting unrestricted use and redistribution provided that the original author and source are credited.

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  1. Kyoung Jo
  2. Seth Teague
  3. Bohan Chen
  4. Hina Aftab Khan
  5. Emily Freeburne
  6. Hunter Li
  7. Bolin Li
  8. Ran Ran
  9. Jason R Spence
  10. Idse Heemskerk
(2022)
Efficient differentiation of human primordial germ cells through geometric control reveals a key role for Nodal signaling
eLife 11:e72811.
https://doi.org/10.7554/eLife.72811

Share this article

https://doi.org/10.7554/eLife.72811

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