Arrest of WNT/β-catenin signaling enables the transition from pluripotent to differentiated germ cells in mouse ovaries
Morgane Le Rolle, Filippo Massa, Pam Siggers, Laurent Turchi, Agnès Loubat, Bon‐Kyoung Koo, Hans Clevers, Andy Greenfield, Andreas Schedl, Marie‐Christine Chaboissier, Anne‐Amandine Chassot
Abstract
Significance In the mammalian ovary, primordial germ cells maintain a genomic program associated with pluripotency until they stop proliferating, move toward oogenesis, and enter meiosis. The molecular mechanisms that enable primordial germ cells to exit pluripotency and enter meiosis in a timely manner are unclear, and their identification represents a major challenge in reproductive biology because the fertility of each individual depends on this. Evidence that cessation of germ cell proliferation is a cell-autonomous event, unrelated to the number of cell divisions, led to a search for an intrinsic timing mechanism that has long remained elusive. We describe here that WNT/β-catenin signaling regulates this timing and coordinates the transition from pluripotent to gametogenesis-competent germ cells.