Project description:The importance of germline-inherited posttranslational histone modification in priming early mammalian development is just emerging1-4. Histone H3 lysine 9 (H3K9) trimethylation is associated with heterochromatin and gene repression during cell-fate change5, while histone H3 lysine 4 (H3K4) trimethylation marks active gene promoters6. Mature oocytes are transcriptionally quiescent and possess remarkably broad domains of H3K4me3 (bdH3K4me3)1, 2. It remains unknown, which factors contribute to the maintenance of the bdH3K4me3 landscape. Lysine-specific demethylase 4A (KDM4A) demethylates H3K9me3 at promoters marked by H3K4me3 in actively transcribing somatic cells7. Here, we report that KDM4A-mediated H3K9me3 demethylation at bdH3K4me3 in oocytes is crucial for normal preimplantation development and zygotic genome activation (ZGA) after fertilization. Loss of KDM4A in oocytes causes extensive and aberrant H3K9me3 spreading at bdH3K4me3, resulting in insufficient transcriptional activation ZGA genes, endogenous retroviral elements and long terminal repeat -initiated chimeric transcripts in 2-cell embryos. The catalytic activity of KDM4A is essential for normal epigenetic reprogramming and preimplantation development. Hence, KDM4A plays a crucial role in preserving maternal epigenome integrity required for proper ZGA and transfer of developmental control to the embryo.
Project description:A conserved event of the maternal-to-zygotic transition (MZT) in animal embryos is the elimination of a subset of the maternal transcripts that accumulated during oogenesis. In invertebrates and lower vertebrates, a maternally encoded mRNA decay pathway (M-decay) acts before zygotic genome activation (ZGA) while a second pathway, which requires zygotic transcription, subsequently clears additional mRNAs (Z-decay). To date it has not been clear whether a Z-decay pathway is present in mammals. Here, we identify mouse and human maternal transcripts that are degraded after ZGA and show that inhibition of de novo transcription stabilizes these mRNAs in mouse and human embryos. We show that YAP1-TEAD4 transcription factor-mediated transcription is essential for Z-decay in mouse embryos and that TEAD4-triggered zygotic Tut4/7 expression and mRNA 3ʹ-oligouridylation direct Z-decay.
Project description:Maternal-to-zygotic transition (MZT) is a conserved and fundamental process during which the maternal environment of oocyte transits to the zygotic genome driven expression program, and terminally differentiated oocyte and sperm are reprogrammed to totipotency. Metaphase II (MII) oocytes and zygotes (one-cell embryo) serve as the mature oocyte and the initiation of pre-implantation embryo development respectively, and characterizing their molecular landscapes at protein levels plays an important role in uncovering MZT and zygotic genome activation (ZGA )in mammals. Here we used an ultrasensitive proteomic approach to depict an in-depth landscape for the very early stage of mouse MZT.
Project description:Maternal-to-zygotic transition (MZT) is a conserved and fundamental process during which the maternal environment of oocyte transits to the zygotic genome driven expression program, and terminally differentiated oocyte and sperm are reprogrammed to totipotency. It is initiated by maternal mRNAs and proteins during the period of zygotic genome quiescence after fertilization, followed by a gradual switch to zygotic genome activation and accompanied by clearance of maternal RNAs and proteins. A key question for embryonic development is how MZT process is regulated. Here we used a low-input proteomic analysis to measure the proteomic dynamics during early development of mouse maternal-to-zygotic transition.
Project description:Upon fertilization, maternal factors direct development in a transcriptionally silent embryo. At the maternal-to-zygotic transition (MZT), a universal step in animal development, unknown maternal factors trigger zygotic genome activation (ZGA). In zebrafish, ZGA is required for gastrulation and clearance of maternal mRNAs, which is achieved in part by the conserved microRNA miR-430. However, the precise factors that activate the zygotic program remain largely unknown. Here we show that Nanog, Pou5f1 and SoxB1 are required for genome activation in zebrafish. We identified several hundred genes directly activated by maternal factors, thus constituting the first wave of zygotic transcription in zebrafish. Ribosome profiling in the pre-MZT embryo revealed that nanog, sox19b and pou5f1 are the most highly translated transcription factor mRNAs. Combined loss of function for Nanog, SoxB1 and Pou5f1 resulted in developmental arrest prior to gastrulation, and a failure to activate >75% of zygotic genes. Furthermore, we found that Nanog binds the miR-430 locus and together with Pou5f1 and SoxB1 initiate miR-430 expression and activity. Our results demonstrate that maternal Nanog, Pou5f1 and SoxB1 are required to initiate the zygotic developmental program and in turn trigger the clearance of the maternal program by activating miR-430 expression. Wild type and loss-of-function total mRNA sequencing of embryonic transcriptomes pre- and post-MZT; ribosome profiling pre-MZT
Project description:Microarray analysis of zygotic gene expression in 2-to-3 hour wild-type (wt) and smg mutant embryos. Expression is relative to mature, stage 14 oocytes, which contain the full maternal pool of mRNA. Strictly maternal genes that are not transcribed at the MZT contribute approximately 80% of transcripts in early embryos, and are not shown. Class I zygotic genes showed high levels of expression in 2-to-3 hour embryos. 142 of the 166 Class I genes were not expressed in smg mutants. The remaining zygotically expressed genes were also present in oocytes. These genes were divided into two classes, based on analysis of 4-to-6 hour old unfertilized eggs (4-6h unf), which are transcriptionally inactive. Class-II genes produce maternal transcripts that are stable in unfertilized eggs and show significantly increased expression in 2-to-3 hour post-fertilization embryos. 358 of 395 Class-II genes require SMAUG for zygotic expression. Class-III genes produce maternal transcripts that are degraded in unfertilized eggs and show significantly increased expression in 2-to-3 hour post-fertilization embryos. 65 of 408 Class-III genes require SMAUG for expression in 2-to-3 hour embryos. mRNA was extracted from staged fertilized or unfertilized eggs, as well as stage 14 oocytes as described previously (Tadros et al., 2007a). To assay mRNA quality, known stable (rpA1) and unstable (Hsp83) transcripts were probed on Northern blots. Total RNA was then reverse transcribed with random primers (Tadros et al., 2007a) and labeled asÃ?described in the Indirect Labeling of Total RNA for Microarray Hybridization protocol at http://www.flyarrays.com. The fluorescently labeled cDNA probes were hybridized to 12Kv1 microarrays obtained from the Canadian Drosophila Microarray Centre (http://www.flyarrays.com; GEO platform accession number GPL1467: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/geo/query/acc.cgi?acc=GPL1467). Hybridization and scanning were performed using a PerkinElmer/GSI ScanArray 4000 scanner and the ScanArray software as previously described (Neal et al., 2003). The 16 bit TIFF image files were quantified using QuantArray Version 3 (PerkinElmer), using the adaptive quantification algorithm and analyzed using GeneTraffic Duo3.2 (Iobion Informatics/Stratagene). The 12Kv1 arrays were normalized using the rank invariant LOWESS extrapolation method (Schadt et al., 2001).