Project description:The aim of the study was to compare the effects of maternal age on embryos in horses. For that, 11 embryos were collected at 8 days post ovulation (expanded blastocyst stage) from 2 groups of multiparous mares of different age: 5 from young mares (<10 years old) and 6 from old mares (10-17 years old). Embryos collected were cut in 2 parts: one hemi-embryo containing pure trophoblast and the other one containing trophoblast + inner cell mass. ARN extractions were performed for all samples using PicoPure RNA isolation kit (Applied Biosystem). Five nanograms of both parts of each embryo were sequenced in paired-end with a length of 30-50bp separately using Illumina NextSeq 500 High. Data were trimmed using Cutadapt. Sequences with less than 10bp were removed.
Project description:Comprehensive quantitative proteomic study of human pre-implantation embryo stages reveal dynamic proteome landscape from M2, 8-cell and blastocyst stage, and during trophoblast stem cell (TS) differentiation. Identified key factors in early human embryos and lineage-specific trophoblast proteome profiles, correlated with transcriptomic analyses. This direct proteomic analysis provides a comprehensive analysis of the dynamic protein expression in human embryos during pre-implantation development and a powerful resource to enable further mechanistic studies on human trophoblast development and function.
Project description:Critical roles for DNA methylation in embryonic development are well established, but less is known about the roles of DNA methylation during trophoblast development, the extraembryonic lineage that gives rise to the placenta. Here we dissected the role of DNA methylation in trophoblast development by performing mRNA and DNA methylation profiling of Dnmt3a/3b-null trophoblast. We find that most gene deregulation is explained by an erasure of maternal methylation in the oocyte, but partially independent of loss of imprinting of the trophoblast-essential Ascl2 gene. Our results reveal that maternal DNA methylation controls multiple differentiation and physiological processes in trophoblast via both imprinting-dependent and -independent mechanisms. mRNA-seq and WGBS-seq of maternal Dnmt3a/3b-null trophoblast; mRNA-seq of maternal Ascl2 KO trophoblast
Project description:Critical roles for DNA methylation in embryonic development are well established, but less is known about the roles of DNA methylation during trophoblast development, the extraembryonic lineage that gives rise to the placenta. Here we dissected the role of DNA methylation in trophoblast development by performing mRNA and DNA methylation profiling of Dnmt3a/3b-null trophoblast. We find that most gene deregulation is explained by an erasure of maternal methylation in the oocyte, but partially independent of loss of imprinting of the trophoblast-essential Ascl2 gene. Our results reveal that maternal DNA methylation controls multiple differentiation and physiological processes in trophoblast via both imprinting-dependent and -independent mechanisms.
Project description:The role of microRNAs (miRNA) in first cell fate choice of the preimplantation mouse embryo remains unresolved, as gene expression and knockout data are conflicting. This cell fate choice generates the extraembryonic lineage of the trophoblast and the embryonic lineage of the epiblast (inner cell mass). The trophoblast differentiates into polar and mural cells, where polar cells contribute to placental development and mural cells to the implantation process and Reichert’s membrane. The inner cell mass further differentiates into the epiblast and primitive endoderm. We used stem cell lines that can be derived from the trophoblast and epiblast lineages to address the role of miRNAs in early lineage cell fate specification and determination. Using embryonic stem cells (ESC) and trophoblast stem cells (TSC) as starting and ending states of cell development we identified a network of TSC expressed miRNAs that are enriched in ESC targets mRNA. We used constitutive and inducible expression of TSC enriched miRNAs in ESC and show that they can drive cell morphology and gene expression profiles similar to trophoblast. Additionally we show that this process required HDAC2 inhibition and is miRNA specific, as cardiac specific miR-1 could not induce trophoblast under these conditions. In contrast to embryo derived and Cdx2 induced trophoblast cells, miRNAs promote a mural TE like cell phenotype. Transplantation into preimplantation mouse embryos showed that miRNA-induced trophoblast preferentially contributes to the mural trophoblast in both the blastocyst and the Reichert’s membrane. Our data support a role for miRNAs and HDACs in the specification of the trophoblast and potentially the polar and mural cell types.
Project description:Expression profiling of stem cell lines derived from the early embryo representing the trophoblast, primitive endoderm, early epiblast (inner cell mass E3.5) and late post-implantation epiblast (E5.5). Cells were grown without feeders and harvested. Comparisons were made to provide evidence of unique gene expression between the cell lines. Specifically, pre-implantation (ICM, epiblast and primitive endoderm, and trophoblast), as well as pre-implantation and post-implantation epiblasts.
Project description:Expression profiling of stem cell lines derived from the early embryo representing the trophoblast, primitive endoderm, early epiblast (inner cell mass E3.5) and late post-implantation epiblast (E5.5).