1 CHARACTERISATION OF THE FINCH EMBRYO SUPPORTS 2 EVOLUTIONARY CONSERVATION OF THE NAÏVE STAGE OF 3 DEVELOPMENT IN AMNIOTES 4 Siu-Shan Mak1, Cantas Alev2†, Hiroki Nagai2†, Anna Wrabel1,2†, Yoko 5 Matsuoka1, Akira Honda1, Guojun Sheng2*, Raj K. Ladher1,3* 6 1. Laboratory for Sensory Development, RIKEN Center for Developmental Biology, 2-2-3 7 Minatojima-Minamimachi, Chuo-ku, Kobe, Japan, 650-0047 8 2. Laboratory for Early Embryogenesis, RIKEN Center for Developmental Biology, 2-2-3 9 Minatojima-Minamimachi, Chuo-ku, Kobe, Japan, 650-0047 10 3. National Center for Biological Sciences (TIFR), Bellary Road, Bangalore, India, 560 065 11 † authors contributed equally 12 * joint corresponding authors 13 14 15 CORRESPONDING AUTHORS 16 Guojun Sheng 17 Laboratory for Early Embryogenesis 18 RIKEN Center for Developmental Biology, 2-2-3 Minatojima-Minamimachi, Chuo-ku, 19 Kobe, 650-0047, JAPAN. e-mail:
[email protected] 20 Raj K. Ladher 21 National Center for Biological Sciences 22 Bellary Road, 23 Bangalore, 560 065, INDIA. e-mail:
[email protected] 24 25 KEYWORDS 26 avian cell culture, avian embryonic stem cells, early blastula, blastoderm development, zebra 27 finch transgenesis. 1 28 29 ABSTRACT 30 Innate pluripotency of mouse embryos transits from naïve to primed state as the inner 31 cell mass (ICM) differentiates into epiblast. In vitro, their counterparts are embryonic 32 (ESCs) and epiblast stem cells (EpiSCs) respectively. Activation of the FGF 33 signalling cascade results in mouse ESCs differentiating into mEpiSCs, indicative of 34 its requirement in the shift between these states. However, only mouse ESCs 35 correspond to the naïve state; ESCs from other mammals and from chick show primed 36 state characteristics.