G protein gene expression during mouse oocyte growth and maturation, and preimplantation embryo development

Inferring the choreography of parental genomes during fertilization from ultralarge-scale whole-transcriptome analysis

“…S7C,D), which supports our interpretation of transcriptional activity by the minor ZGA at 1C. These genes were associated with the processes that the minor ZGA initiates at 1C (Supplemental Table S5) and provided support for the biological significance of signal transduction, such as GPCRs (Williams et al 1996;Saunders et al 2002) and MAPK (Sun et al 1999;Kelkar et al 2003;Fan and Sun 2004;Kawamura et al 2005;Liu et al 2010), which were not enriched in parthenotes. Our data suggest that, immediately after fertilization, the minor ZGA program initiates the transient or continuous activities of important biological processes by incorporating newly synthesized and sperm-borne RNAs as the potential triggers of zygotic genome activation.…”

“…These include male-specific reproduction processes, even though a paternal genome was not present (e.g., Acsbg2, Adam18, Adam24, Spata20, Stra8, and Taf7l in Spr1C-NscP1C). Second, genes in Nsc1C were involved in phospholipase activity and G-proteincoupled receptor (GPCR) signaling pathways known to trigger Ca 2+ oscillations (Williams et al 1996;Saunders et al 2002). By mapping the categorized genes onto the calcium signaling pathway in KEGG (Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes) (Kanehisa et al 2012), we confirmed that the gene usage of fertilized oocytes differed from that of parthenotes for GPCR in the pathway (Supplemental Fig.…”

“…In mice, maternal RNAs are degraded (Piko and Clegg 1982), and then the embryos exhibit waves of gene expression transitions; namely, zygotic gene activation (ZGA) at the two-cell stage (2C) and mid-preimplantation gene activation (MGA) at the four-cell stage (4C) (Wang and Dey 2006). These gene expression patterns are altered in parthenogenetic embryos (Bui et al 2011), leading to abortive development owing to abnormalities in genetic imprints and signal transduction (Williams et al 1996;Fan and Sun 2004;Wang et al 2004;Liu et al 2010). Recent studies have also shown that parental epigenomic effects also play an essential role in establishing the appropriate expression profile during development; among these epigenetic modifications are DNA methylation (Kobayashi et al 2012;Smith et al 2012), histone modification (Miller et al 2010;Santenard et al 2010;Erkek et al 2013), and regulation by noncoding RNAs (ncRNAs) (Amanai et al 2006;Tang et al 2007;Svoboda and Flemr 2010).…”

Paracrine regulation of mammalian oocyte maturation and male germ cell survival

“…Oocyte maturation is regulated by antibodies for Gs (17) and phosphodiesterase 3 inhibitors (23). Rat oocytes also express adenylyl cyclase AC3 (24) and the inhibitory G proteins (25). Although LGR8 is the only known functional GPCR found in the oocyte, the adenosine A3 receptor (26) and several odorant receptors are present in male germ cells and are implicated in germ cell maturation and chemotaxis (27).…”

Translation of Maternal Messenger Ribonucleic Acids Encoding Transcription Factors During Genome Activation in Early Mouse Embryos1

“…Although differences in experimental design and assay sensitivity limit the degree to which embryological studies from different laboratories may be compared, comparisons of published data indicate that the QADB has generally yielded expression data that are in good agreement with data obtained by alternative methods. For example, temporal patterns of expression observed for a number of transcripts (e.g., tPA, Hprt, G protein ␣S, ␣q, ␣i2, ␣13, ␣11, and ␣14 isoforms, c-myc, Pgk1, U2afbp-rs, Bcl-2, Bax, Bcl-x, Bad, Bcl-w, Caspase-2, Na ϩ /K ϩ -ATPase ␣1 subunit) are very similar (after accounting for differences in frequency of sampling, the number of time intervals assayed, and the quantitative resolution of assay methods used) to the patterns observed with other methods, such as RT-PCR, Northern blotting, and Western blotting, or in some cases to the inferred pattern of embryonic gene expression based on the results of experimental treatments such as the use of antisense oligonucleotides (compare above references with the following: tPA, [42][43][44] Hprt, [45]; G proteins, [46]; c-myc, [47,48]; Pgk1, [27]; U2afbp-rs, [49]; Bcl-2, Bax, Bcl-x, Bad, Bcl-w, Caspase-2, [50,51]; Na ϩ /K ϩ -ATPase ␣1 subunit, [52,53]). The QADB method has even been able to detect the low-abundance Xist RNA expression at the 2-cell stage in mouse embryos [31], consistent with XIST RNA expression in the early (4-cell-stage) human embryo [54] and Xist promoter-driven expression of a transgene in mouse 2-cell embryos [55].…”