Seboxplays an important role during the early mouse oogenesisin vitro

Abstract

Oogenesis is a highly complex process that requires the exquisite temporal and spatial regulation of gene expression at multiple levels. Skin-embryo-brain-oocyte homeobox (Sebox) gene encodes a transcription factor that is highly expressed in germinal vesicle stage oocytes and that plays an essential role in early embryogenesis at the 2-cell stage in the mouse. As Sebox is also expressed in mouse fetal ovaries, the aim of the present study was to study its role during the early oogenesis in vitro. Expression of Sebox was low in 15.5 to 17.5 days post coitum (dpc) ovaries, showed a peak at 18.5 dpc and then its expression decreased dramatically in newborn ovaries. Sebox expression was efficiently knocked down (>80%) in fetal mouse ovary explants in culture using RNAi technology. When fetal ovary explants were transfected with Sebox-specific RNAi, the number of oocytes at germinal vesicle stage and showing a diameter of 40-70 μm was decreased significantly to 75% after 7 days of culture relative to the negative control, and to 22.4% after 10 days of culture, thus indicating that Sebox plays an important role in the early oogenesis in mice.

The miR-125 family is an important regulator of the expression and maintenance of maternal effect genes during preimplantational embryo development

“…Therefore, further studies should determine whether Sebox represents a novel transcription factor and clarify mutual functional interactions between Sebox and its target genes. In mice, Sebox has recently been shown to affect both early oogenesis in the fetus and early embryogenesis, and it has also been reported to affect mesoderm formation in early amphibian embryos [17,19,39,40]. In this study, we provide the first report that Sebox, both mRNA and protein, is expressed in mESCs.…”

Associations among Sebox and Other MEGs and Its Effects on Early Embryogenesis

“…Recently, other sources have substantiated the importance of Sebox in early oogenesis [ 7 ]. Sebox is a mouse paired-like homeobox gene that encodes a transcription factor with a 60 amino acid single homeodomain motif ( Fig.…”

Sebox regulates mesoderm formation in early amphibian embryos

“…Our findings, from both gain‐ and loss‐of‐function analyses, strongly support the hypothesis that Sebox is a negative regulator of mesodermal genes, such as those encoding the noncanonical Wnts. In mice, Sebox has been reported to play an important role during cleavage stages (Moreno et al, ), before germ layer specification has occurred, supporting the notion that the function of Sebox homologs in different vertebrate species has diversified during evolution. This might be explained by the fact that Sebox factors from different species share relatively low peptidyl sequence homologies outside the characteristic paired box domain (Pereira et al, ).…”