This research provides new perspectives on the evolution of multicellularity - a major transition in life's history. It could have implications for developmental biology and regenerative medicine!
(9/n)

Interestingly, while we found POU proteins in choanoflagellates too, they couldn't induce pluripotency. This suggests that POU factors needed further adaptations to function in animal stem cells.
(7/n)

Using ancestral sequence reconstruction, we "resurrected" ancient metazoan Sox proteins. These reconstructed proteins could also induce pluripotency in mice!
(5/n)

But here's the really cool part: choanoflagellate Sox proteins can replace mouse Sox2 in reprogramming mouse cells into induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs)!
(4/n)

Our study reveals that key proteins involved in animal stem cell regulation (SOX and POU transcription factors) are much older than previously thought! They actually predate the origin of animals, which evolved over 700 million years ago.
(2/n)