Asynchronous fate decisions by single cells collectively ensure consistent lineage composition in the mouse blastocyst

Intercellular communication is essential to coordinate the behaviour of individual cells during organismal development. The preimplantation mammalian embryo is a paradigm of tissue self-organization and regulative development; however, the cellular basis of these regulative abilities has not been established. Here we use a quantitative image analysis pipeline to undertake a high-resolution, single-cell level analysis of lineage specification in the inner cell mass (ICM) of the mouse blastocyst. We show that a consistent ratio of epiblast and primitive endoderm lineages is achieved through incremental allocation of cells from a common progenitor pool, and that the lineage composition of the ICM is conserved regardless of its size. Furthermore, timed modulation of the FGF-MAPK pathway shows that individual progenitors commit to either fate asynchronously during blastocyst development. These data indicate that such incremental lineage allocation provides the basis for a tissue size control mechanism that ensures the generation of lineages of appropriate size. Early embryonic cell fate and lineage specification is tightly regulated in the preimplantation mammalian embryo. Here, the authors quantitatively examine the ratio of epiblast to primitive endoderm lineages in the blastocyst and show composition of the inner cell mass is conserved, independent of its size.