Abstract
Gastruloids ; definition, production, characterization and mouse/human comparisons. Gastruloids as objects of study and as test tubes.
This third lesson begins with a brief history of gastruloid production and initial characterization. Then, the adaptation of the mouse protocol to the production of human gastruloids is discussed, as well as the characterization of these human gastruloids using a tomographic approach to RNA analysis (Tomo-seq). The same approach is used to compare human and murine gastruloids in terms of coordination of global sRNA expression, and although the general appearance is well conserved between these two species, notable differences are nevertheless observed.
The lesson continues with a discussion of two recent works. The first illustrates how the various functions of the BMP4 protein on cellular differentiation pathways during gastruloid development can be assessed fairly objectively. The second shows how such pseudo-embryos can be used as test tubes to analyze an important question concerning the genetic regulation of the expression of essential genes during embryonic development, a problem often difficult to solve using real embryos.
