Summary

Acquisition of pluripotency is a dynamic and reversible process that takes part during the early development and can be recapitulated in vitro during induced pluripotent stem cell (iPSC) reprogramming (1). It is concerted by diverse interconnected mechanisms, from spatial chromatin reorganization to changes in transcriptional regulation (2). These mechanisms are acting in a hierarchical and synergistic way, ensuring that cells achieve pluripotency. Here, we aim to characterize the roles of two different players – RAD21, a member of the Cohesin complex (3) and FOXP4, a transcriptional regulator (4) – in the process of reprogramming. Making use of a wide variety of approaches, combining Auxindegron inducible degradation of target proteins, imaging, and RNA-seq analysis, we are suggesting their divergent, yet linked roles in the processes of early reprogramming and X chromosome reactivation in female mouse cells. Taken together, the results obtained in this work are opening questions and directions for future research of those genes.