Dynamic changes in Sox2 spatio-temporal expression promote the second cell fate decision through / signaling in preimplantation mouse embryos.

Oct4 and Sox2 regulate the expression of target genes such as , and , by binding to their respective regulatory motifs. Their functional cooperation is reflected in their ability to heterodimerize on adjacent regulatory motifs, the composite Sox/Oct motif. Given that Oct4 and Sox2 regulate many developmental genes, a quantitative analysis of their synergistic action on different Sox/Oct motifs would yield valuable insights into the mechanisms of early embryonic development.

Expression and characterization of soluble amino-terminal domain of NR2B subunit of N-methyl-D-aspartate receptor.

N-methyl-D-aspartate (NMDA) receptors are involved in mediating excitatory synaptic transmissions in the brain and have been implicated in numerous neurologic disorders. The proximal amino-terminal domains (ATDs) of NMDA receptors constitute many modulatory binding sites that may serve as potential drug targets. There are few biochemical and structural data on the ATDs of NMDA receptors, as it is difficult to produce the functional proteins.

Transcriptional regulation of nanog by OCT4 and SOX2.

Nanog, Sox2, and Oct4 are transcription factors all essential to maintaining the pluripotent embryonic stem cell phenotype. Through a cooperative interaction, Sox2 and Oct4 have previously been described to drive pluripotent-specific expression of a number of genes. We now extend the list of Sox2-Oct4 target genes to include Nanog.