New role of important factor in early embryonic development identified

In collaboration with Stanford University, a working group from MedUni Vienna's Division of Cell and Developmental Biology, led by Mark Wossidlo, has identified the role of a factor involved in early embryonic development. This is the Zscan4 protein, which has now been shown to protect the early embryo from DNA damage and DNA strand breaks during activation of the first of its own genes. Up until this time, it was not known why there is such high expression of Zscan4 during so-called embryonic genome activation—i.e. when the embryo's genome is activated for the first time—and what role it plays.

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