In mammals, proper placental development is essential for growth and viability of the embryo. The transcription factor TFAP2C is known to be important for specification and maintenance of trophoblast stem cells (placental progenitors), but whether this factor also plays roles at later stages of placental development is less well understood. On 787, Hubert Schorle and co-workers provide insights into the role of TFAP2C in a subset of placental progenitors, the TPBPA-expressing population that forms the junctional zone of the placenta. Loss of Tfap2c from this population leads to growth defects in the junctional zone, with reduced numbers of TPBPA+ cell-derived trophoblasts. Microarray analysis and follow-up experiments provide evidence that TFAP2C controls several key aspects of placental development: it inhibits Cdkn1a, a cell cycle inhibitor; promotes expression and activation of Akt to regulate glycogen synthesis; and promotes MAPK pathway activity – important for trophoblast proliferation and differentiation – by repressing the Dusp family of MAPK inhibitors. Importantly, this conditional mouse mutant provides a model for intrauterine growth retardation, as mutant embryos show lower foetal and birth weight. Preliminary data in a human trophoblast cell model suggests that this important role of TFAP2C may be conserved.
TFAP2C: a key controller of placental growth
TFAP2C: a key controller of placental growth. Development 1 March 2016; 143 (5): e0504. doi:
Download citation file:
Advertisement
Cited by
Call for papers: Uncovering Developmental Diversity
Development invites you to submit your latest research to our upcoming special issue: Uncovering Developmental Diversity. This issue will be coordinated by our academic Editor Cassandra Extavour (Harvard University, USA) alongside two Guest Editors: Liam Dolan (Gregor Mendel Institute of Molecular Plant Biology, Austria) and Karen Sears (University of California Los Angeles, USA).
Choose Development in 2024
In this Editorial, Development Editor-in-Chief James Briscoe and Executive Editor Katherine Brown explain how you support your community by publishing in Development and how the journal champions serious science, community connections and progressive publishing.
Journal Meeting: From Stem Cells to Human Development
Register now for the 2024 Development Journal Meeting From Stem Cells to Human Development. Early-bird registration deadline: 3 May. Abstract submission deadline: 21 June.
Pluripotency of a founding field: rebranding developmental biology
This collaborative Perspective, the result of a workshop held in 2023, proposes a set of community actions to increase the visibility of the developmental biology field. The authors make recommendations for new funding streams, frameworks for collaborations and mechanisms by which members of the community can promote themselves and their research.
Read & Publish Open Access publishing: what authors say
We have had great feedback from authors who have benefitted from our Read & Publish agreement with their institution and have been able to publish Open Access with us without paying an APC. Read what they had to say.