In cellular reprogramming, almost all epigenetic memories of differentiated cells are erased by the overexpression of few genes, regaining pluripotency, potentiality for differentiation. Considering the interplay between oscillatory gene expression and slower epigenetic modifications, such reprogramming is perceived as an unintuitive, global attraction to the unstable manifold of a saddle, which represents pluripotency. The universality of this scheme is confirmed by the repressilator model, and by gene regulatory networks randomly generated and those extracted from embryonic stem cells.

15 pages, 12 figures