Retinoic acid (RA) and bone morphogenetic protein 4 (BMP4) restore the germline competence of in vitro cultured chicken blastodermal cells.

Chicken blastodermal cells (BCs) are pluripotent stem cells derived from early embryos and may be easily obtained and manipulated. However, in vitro cultured BCs have extremely low germline capacity, which may limit their applications. Research on the germ cell differentiation of mammalian pluripotent cells using chemical-inducing agents has gained popularity, and tremendous achievements have been made. Whether chemical-inducing agents allow acquirement of germline competence in BCs is, however, questionable. In this study, retinoic acid (RA) and bone morphogenetic protein 4 (BMP4) promoted the expression of germline-specific genes and restored the germline competence of in vitro cultured BCs. Moreover, BCs induced with RA and BMP4 could efficiently produce gonadal chimeric chick embryos. These results may greatly enhance the potential applications of BCs in biotechnology and basic research.