Florida State University researchers have discovered that as embryonic stem cells turn into different cell types, there are dramatic corresponding changes to the order in which DNA is replicated and reorganized.

“Understanding how replication works during embryonic stem cell differentiation gives us a molecular handle on how information is packaged in different types of cells in manners characteristic to each cell type,” said David M. Gilbert, the study’s principal investigator. “That handle will help us reverse the process in order to engineer different types of cells for use in disease therapies.”

He explained that embryonic stem cells have many more, smaller “domains” of organization than differentiated cells, and it is during differentiation that they consolidate information.