Project description:Mammalian oocytes can reprogram somatic cells into totipotent state, which allows animal cloning through somatic cell nuclear transfer (SCNT). However, the great majority of SCNT embryos fail to develop to term due to poorly defined reprogramming defects. Here we demonstrate that histone H3 lysine 9 trimethylation (H3K9me3) in donor nuclei is a major epigenetic barrier that prevents efficient nuclear reprogramming in mouse oocytes. Comparative transcriptome analysis of early embryos revealed reprogramming resistant regions (RRRs) where transcriptional activation at 2-cell embryos is inhibited by SCNT compared to in vitro fertilization (IVF). RRRs significantly overlap with H3K9me3 enrichment in donor somatic cells. Importantly, removal of the H3K9me3 by ectopic expression of an H3K9me3 demethylase Kdm4d in recipient oocytes not only reactivates most RRRs, but also greatly improves development of SCNT embryos. Furthermore, the use of Suv39h1/2-depleted somatic nuclei as donors also greatly improves the development of SCNT embryos. Our study thus reveals H3K9me3 as an epigenetic barrier in SCNT-mediated reprogramming and provides a feasible method for improving mammalian cloning efficiency.
Project description:Reprogramming occurs after nuclear transfer into zygotes whose genomes have been removed in mitosis, but not after nuclear transfer into zygotes enucleated in interphase. Our results suggest that there is a previously unappreciated barrier to successful human nuclear transfer, and that future studies should focus on the requirements for somatic genome activation.
Project description:Reprogramming occurs after nuclear transfer into zygotes whose genomes have been removed in mitosis, but not after nuclear transfer into zygotes enucleated in interphase. Our results suggest that there is a previously unappreciated barrier to successful human nuclear transfer, and that future studies should focus on the requirements for somatic genome activation. 1-3 embryos were used for analysis. RNA amplification was done using two or three rounds of T7-mediated RNA amplification using the Illumina Total Prep RNA Amplification kit. Somatic cells 1-000 and 1-011 required only one round of RNA amplification because starting amounts of RNA were 100-500ng, while embryonic samples were amplified from single cells or embryos.