diff --git a/core/modules/entity/entity.api.php b/core/modules/entity/entity.api.php
index 37263a6..7727b32 100644
--- a/core/modules/entity/entity.api.php
+++ b/core/modules/entity/entity.api.php
@@ -77,6 +77,10 @@
  *       'subject' should be specified here. If complex logic is required to
  *       build the label, a 'label callback' should be defined instead (see
  *       the 'label callback' section above for details).
+ *     - uuid: The name of the property that contains the universally unique
+ *       identifier of the entity, which is used to distinctly identify an
+ *       entity across different Drupal installations, and is therefore a
+ *       prerequisite an entity being supported by a content staging mechanism.
  *   - bundle keys: An array describing how the Field API can extract the
  *     information it needs from the bundle objects for this type (e.g
  *     $vocabulary objects for terms; not applicable for nodes). This entry can
@@ -148,6 +152,7 @@ function hook_entity_info() {
         'id' => 'nid',
         'revision' => 'vid',
         'bundle' => 'type',
+        'uuid' => 'uuid',
       ),
       'bundle keys' => array(
         'bundle' => 'type',
diff --git a/core/modules/entity/entity.module b/core/modules/entity/entity.module
index daaa9f6..a339df7 100644
--- a/core/modules/entity/entity.module
+++ b/core/modules/entity/entity.module
@@ -217,6 +217,54 @@ function entity_load($entity_type, $id, $reset = FALSE) {
 }
 
 /**
+ * Load entity from the database by given UUID.
+ *
+ * If an entity type supports a UUID-type entity identifier, this function can
+ * find an entity by that UUID-type entity identifier.
+ * Not all entities support that kind of UUID-type entity identifier
+ * (which can be defined in hook_entity_info).
+ *
+ * @param string $entity_type
+ *   The entity type to load, e.g. node or user.
+ * @param string $uuid
+ *   The uuid of the entity to load.
+ * @param bool $reset
+ *   Whether to reset the internal cache for the requested entity type.
+ *
+ * @return EntityInterface|FALSE
+ *   The entity object, or FALSE if there is no entity with the given UUID.
+ *
+ * @see hook_entity_info()
+ *
+ */
+function entity_load_by_uuid($entity_type, $uuid, $reset = FALSE) {
+  $entity = FALSE;
+
+  // Only consider entities that have a "uuid"-type key declared via
+  // hook_entity_info.
+  $entity_info = entity_get_info($entity_type);
+  if (is_array($entity_info) && isset($entity_info['entity keys']) && isset($entity_info['entity keys']['uuid'])) {
+    $uuid_key_name = $entity_info['entity keys']['uuid'];
+
+    // Retrieve entity record for given uuid to get its entity id.
+    $entity_query = new Drupal\entity\EntityFieldQuery();
+    $entity_query_result = $entity_query->entityCondition('entity_type', $entity_type)
+      ->propertyCondition($uuid_key_name, $uuid)
+      ->range(0, 1)
+      ->execute();
+
+    // Mine result for entity id and load the entity by its id.
+    if (is_array($entity_query_result) && isset($entity_query_result[$entity_type])) {
+      $entity_ids = array_keys($entity_query_result[$entity_type]);
+      $entity_id = array_shift($entity_ids);
+      $entity = entity_load($entity_type, $entity_id, $reset);
+    }
+  }
+
+  return $entity;
+}
+
+/**
  * Loads multiple entities from the database.
  *
  * This function should be used whenever you need to load more than one entity
diff --git a/core/modules/node/lib/Drupal/node/Node.php b/core/modules/node/lib/Drupal/node/Node.php
index 1aac6fb..9694624 100644
--- a/core/modules/node/lib/Drupal/node/Node.php
+++ b/core/modules/node/lib/Drupal/node/Node.php
@@ -29,6 +29,13 @@ class Node extends Entity {
   public $vid;
 
   /**
+   * The node UUID.
+   *
+   * @var integer
+   */
+  public $uuid;
+
+  /**
    * The node content type (bundle).
    *
    * @var string
diff --git a/core/modules/node/lib/Drupal/node/NodeStorageController.php b/core/modules/node/lib/Drupal/node/NodeStorageController.php
index aa52582..897b387 100644
--- a/core/modules/node/lib/Drupal/node/NodeStorageController.php
+++ b/core/modules/node/lib/Drupal/node/NodeStorageController.php
@@ -10,6 +10,7 @@ namespace Drupal\node;
 use Drupal\entity\DatabaseStorageController;
 use Drupal\entity\EntityInterface;
 use Drupal\entity\EntityStorageException;
+use Drupal\Component\Uuid\Uuid;
 use Exception;
 
 /**
@@ -30,6 +31,8 @@ class NodeStorageController extends DatabaseStorageController {
     if (empty($node->created)) {
       $node->created = REQUEST_TIME;
     }
+    $uuid = new Uuid();
+    $node->uuid = $uuid->generate();
 
     return $node;
   }
diff --git a/core/modules/node/node.install b/core/modules/node/node.install
index 6f806e9..34aebd8 100644
--- a/core/modules/node/node.install
+++ b/core/modules/node/node.install
@@ -27,6 +27,13 @@ function node_schema() {
         'not null' => FALSE,
         'default' => NULL,
       ),
+      'uuid' => array(
+        'description' => 'The universally unique identifier for a node.',
+        'type' => 'varchar',
+        'length' => 36,
+        'not null' => TRUE,
+        'default' => '',
+      ),
       'type' => array(
         'description' => 'The {node_type}.type of this node.',
         'type' => 'varchar',
@@ -114,6 +121,7 @@ function node_schema() {
       'uid'                 => array('uid'),
       'tnid'                => array('tnid'),
       'translate'           => array('translate'),
+      'uuid'                => array('uuid'),
     ),
     'unique keys' => array(
       'vid' => array('vid'),
@@ -543,6 +551,31 @@ function node_update_8002() {
 }
 
 /**
+ * Create an uuid column for node table.
+ *
+ * @ToDo: Batch generate uuids for all existing nodes without a uuid.
+ */
+function node_update_8003() {
+  db_add_field(
+    'node',
+    'uuid',
+    array(
+      'description' => 'The universally unique identifier for a node.',
+      'type' => 'varchar',
+      'length' => 36,
+      'not null' => TRUE,
+      'default' => '',
+    ),
+    array(
+      'indexes' => array(
+        'uuid' => array('uuid'),
+      )
+    )
+  );
+}
+
+
+/**
  * @} End of "addtogroup updates-7.x-to-8.x".
  * The next series of updates should start at 9000.
  */
diff --git a/core/modules/node/node.module b/core/modules/node/node.module
index e787c7d..8c8a482 100644
--- a/core/modules/node/node.module
+++ b/core/modules/node/node.module
@@ -204,6 +204,7 @@ function node_entity_info() {
         'revision' => 'vid',
         'bundle' => 'type',
         'label' => 'title',
+        'uuid' => 'uuid',
       ),
       'bundle keys' => array(
         'bundle' => 'type',