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. Author manuscript; available in PMC: 2020 Jun 24.
Published in final edited form as: Annu Rev Biochem. 2020 Jan 13;89:235–253. doi: 10.1146/annurev-biochem-120219-103641

Figure 4.

Figure 4

Bivalent chromatin marks and their resolution upon differentiation. (a) Mammalian embryonic stem cells are derived from the inner cell mass of blastocysts. Embryonic stem cells not only are capable of self-renewal but also are pluripotent, meaning they can give rise to many cell types in the body. (b) Many developmental genes in pluripotent cells are marked with bivalent chromatin in which both active H3K4me3 and silent H3K27me3 modifications coexist. This bivalency typically is resolved into either active or silent states during differentiation.