Dhaka, the 31st Jan., 14. Unlike higher plants, an animal biologist may tend to think that it requires a lot of manipulation and strenuous effort to make an adult cell turn into a pluripotent one. On the 29th January issue ofNature, the science correspondent, David Cyranoskireports that  Obokata, a celebrated Japanese researcher demonstrated that by just squeezing or bathing cells in acidic conditions they can be reprogrammed into an embryonic state. Obokata called the phenomenon stimulus-triggered acquisition of pluripotency (STAP).

The two papers published on the 29th January issue ofNature describe an unusual reprogramming phenomenon by which the fate of somatic cells can be drastically altered through changes to the external environment. 

In another paper, reporting the results of their investigation on the nature of STAP cells, Obokata and colleagues suggest that they represent a unique state of pluripotency. The researchers also demonstrate that under pluripotent stem-cell culture conditions STAP cells can be transformed into robustly self-renewing stem cells, similar to embryonic stem cells.