Nanog (from Tir Na Nog, the mythologic Celtic land of the ever young) is a divergent homeodomain protein that directs pluripotency and differentiation of undifferentiated embryonic stem cells. Nanog mRNA is present in pluripotent mouse and human cell lines and absent from differentiated cells. Human Nanog protein shares 52% overall amino acid identity with the mouse protein and 85% identity in the homeodomain. Human Nanog maps to gene locus 12p13.31, whereas mouse Nanog maps to gene loci 6 F2. Murine embryonic Nanog expression is detected in the inner cell mass of the blastocyst. High levels of human Nanog expression have been detected by Northern analysis in the undifferentiated NTERA-2 cl.D1 embryonal carcinoma cell line.
