MEMD · microRNA regulation of apoptosis and differentiation during early mammalian development

A number of crucial events involved in embryo patterning occur during early post-implantation development in mammals. These include the differentiation of the pluripotent epiblast into the different embryo lineages, the specification of the body axes and morphogenetic events such as the cavitation of the embryo by programmed cell death. Embryonic Stem (ES) cells derived from the undifferentiated epiblast represent a powerful tool for the development of new therapies, however to successfully manipulate them it is necessary to understand how they differentiate in the embryo in vivo. MicroRNAs (miRNAs) are small non-coding RNAs that bind in a complementary way to target mRNAs and repress gene expression